Great Western Railway Star Class 4-6-0 express passenger locomotive 4057 “Princess Elizabeth” – pictured left at the head of an express train -was delivered new to Old Oak Common Depot in July 1914 and withdrawn by British Railways from Swindon in February 1952
The 4-6-0 wheel arrangement originated in the United States of America and was introduced to Britain by David Jones, Locomotive Superintendent of the Highland Railway in 1894. The fifteen strong “Big Goods” class were built by Sharp Stewart and Company and when first outshopped from their Glasgow works were the most powerful mainline locomotives in Britain. Although designed as freight engines, the “Big Goods” often hauled Highland Railway passenger trains during the busy summer season.
In fact the first Great Western Railway 4-6-0 had also been introduced as freight locomotive: this time by William Dean in 1896. Number 36 – popularly known as “The Crocodile” due to its long boiler and round topped firebox – combined the double frames typical of Great Western practice of the time with 20″ x 24″ (bore and stroke) inside cylinders. Designed to haul heavy freight trains through the Severn Tunnel, it proved to be exceptionally capable although a weak point was the crank axle that transferred torque to the 4′ 7 1/2″ diameter driving wheels. However, 36 remained a prototype and was withdrawn in 1905 with the relatively low mileage of 171 428.
The year 1899 also saw the advent of Great Western Railway 4-6-0 locomotive 2601, nicknamed Kruger after the then leader of Britain’s enemies the Boers in South Africa, and to say the least lacking the finesse usually associated with Swindon’s Drawing Office! The double frames of this massive locomotive were similar to those of number 36 while 2601 possessed a domeless boiler with a 3′ 6″ combustion chamber between it and the raised Belpaire firebox.
This boiler was supported at the front end by the smokebox and at the rear by a cradle which stretched across the frames. A rectangular sandbox was located on top of the boiler as an experiment to see if the heat from the boiler would keep the sand dry and free-running and for access to this feature steps were attached to both sides of the rear smokebox.
The springing on this experimental engine was of the volute type in nests and the bogie had spoked wheels with an inside frame. The 7′ long Belpaire firebox was also notable in being straight sided rather than waisted with a uniform width of 5′ 9″. 2601 had a very short life, being withdrawn in December 1904.
Great Western Railway 4-6-0 express passenger locomotives however were developed by George Jackson Churchward. As Chief Mechanical Engineer from 1902, Churchward planned to rationalise GWR motive power into six basic types. One of these was to be a 4-6-0 to to replace the 4-4-0 “Cities” which could run very fast but lacked the strength to haul heavy corridor expresses.
A 4-6-0 locomotive – numbered 100 and later named “William Dean” after Churchward’s predecessor – had already been built at Swindon with inside frames and two outside cylinders. This inversion of contemporary GWR practice led to the building of the 4-6-0 “Saints”, but Churchward saw beyond such minor changes.
Churchward realised that the smooth passage of steam from collection pipe to chimney was just as important as steam production from a high pressure boiler. As a result his new 4-6-0 design was to have wide long-travel piston valves linked to long stroke pistons by Walschaerts valve gear. The latter not only gave precise, economical running but was compactly fitted between the frames and could run with only half its parts in working order.
Churchward also considered constructing his express 4-6-0 as a compound locomotive. Between 1903 and 1905 three de Glehn 4-4-2s from the French Nord railway were imported for trials against a GWR Atlantic built in 1906.
Although the home-grown simple expansion machine out-performed its European counterparts with more economy, their four cylindered layout gave a smoother ride. Consequently Great Western 4-4-2 number 40 – which was named “North Star” in October 1906 – was rebuilt as a 4-6-0 in 1909 and renumbered 4000 in December 1912.
4000 “North Star” was fitted with 14¼” bore x 26″ stroke (compared to the later Star standard 15″ x 26″ initially applied to 4041 and later retrofitted to all class members) and an unusual scissors valve gear as well as the curved framing that was built on the second batch of production engines.
“North Star” also had a footplate that was 2½ inches higher than the other Walschaerts valve gear fitted taper-boilered Stars and kept this feature even rebuilt as a Castle class locomotive in November 1929. As a Castle, 4000 “North Star” was first allocated to Newton Abbot, was at Wolverhampton Stafford Road in 1947 and was withdrawn from Landore in May 1957.
The “Stars” excelled on the gradients of South Wales and the West Country where load-pulling ability counted more than speed. Fitted with superheat from 1908 they also laid the foundation for Charles Collett’s ” Castle ” class of 1923.
Indeed, between 1925 and 1929, numbers 4000/ 9/ 16/ 32 and 37 were taken out of stock and rebuilt as ‘Castle’ class locomotives. Similarly, numbers 4063 to 4072, known as the ‘Abbeys’, were rebuilt as ‘Castle’ class engines between 1937 and 1940. 4000/ 1/ 8/ 10/ 13/ 17/ 18/ 21/ 22/ 24/ 28/ 35/ 38/ 44/ 47/ 51/ 54/ 55/ 57 /6 and 61-72 were fitted with cast iron chimneys for the period 1919 to 1924 as an austerity measure. The latter 12 engines had them fitted as standard.
Outside steam pipes were fitted to most of the class from 1929 although of two types, ‘Elbow’ and ‘Castle’. The ‘Elbow’ type doubled back between the frames and was used when new inside cylinders or saddles were fitted with the old pattern outside cylinders. The ‘Castle’ type of steam pipe was used when new pattern outside cylinders were fitted.
From 1932, the upper lamp irons were transferred from the front of the chimney to the smokebox door while from 1939, some members of the class received the Grange type of shorter chimney, 1′ 9″ high compared to the previous 1′ 11¾”.
Although the record breaking run of Great Western 4-4-0 City Class locomotive 3440 in 1904 – and its probable though still debatable breaking of the 100 mph barrier – is well documented, Star 4-6-0 4013 “Knight of St Patrick” achieved what legendary train performance recorder O.S. Nock considered “a classic run” on 28 April 1908 between Exeter and Paddington with a train of 390 tons including the GWR Dynamometer car. This journey elapsed in 189 minutes 58 seconds but allowing for a permanent way slack at Pewsey and a signal check as frustratingly near Paddington as Royal Oak, the net time was 183 minutes, two minutes under schedule with maximum tractive effort being applied on quite severe adverse gradients.
On leaving BR service in 1951, 4003 “Lode Star” became the only member of the class to be preserved. Built in February 1907 it was fitted with Automatic Warning System ( AWS ) and a speedometer but lost its bogie brake gear from November 1923 in line with other GWR locomotives. 1962 saw 4003 enter Swindon Railway Museum where it lay dormant but highly polished until Sunday 1 March 1992 when it was removed by low loader for its journey to the National Railway Museum in York.
Its place in Swindon was taken by 6000 “King George V” which subsequently moved to the “Steam” museum on the former Swindon Works site in the 21st Century. Some of the “Star” names were also taken up by Britannia Pacifics introduced to British Railways Western Region in the 1950s and the name applied to 4002 “Evening Star” was used for the last time on British Railway’s final steam locomotive – 9F 2-10-0 92220 – outshopped from Swindon in March 1960.
GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY 4-6-0s ON ” THE ROYAL ROAD”
The British Royal Family always had a close relationship with the Great Western Railway which began when Queen Victoria made her first ever rail journey from Windsor. As such it was not surprising that 4048 Princess Victoria was temporarily named Princess Mary in honour of the future Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood, born on 25 April 1897 in Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee year.
Queen Victoria called her “My dear little Jubilee baby” and her grandfather, the Prince of Wales suggested calling her Diamond. Instead she was christened Victoria Alexandra Alice Mary, however, she was always known as Mary, after her maternal grandmother Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck.
Princess Mary was born at York Cottage, on the Sandringham estate, the third child and only daughter of the Duke and Duchess of York, the future King George V and Queen Mary. Her siblings were Prince Edward (later Edward VIII and Duke of Windsor), Albert (later King George VI), Henry, Duke of Gloucester, Prince George, Duke of Kent and Prince John.
During the First World War Princess Mary was active in welfare organizations that provided comfort to troops and introduced the Princess Mary gift box which was sent out to troops in Christmas 1914. These boxes contained one ounce of pipe tobacco, twenty cigarettes, a pipe, a tinder lighter, a Christmas card from the King and Queen and a photograph of Princess Mary. Non-smokers received a box containing a packet of antacid tablets, a khaki writing case containing pencil, paper and envelopes together with the Christmas card and photograph. Princess Mary also took a nursing course and in 1918 went to work at the Great Ormond Street Hospital.
In 1922 she married Henry, Viscount Lascelles, a man 15 years her senior at Westminster Abbey. At first they lived at Goldsborough Hall, near Knaresborough but seven years after their wedding, Lord Lascelles succeeded his father as the sixth Earl of Harewood and they moved into Harewood House. Princess Mary loved Yorkshire and she was known as the ‘Yorkshire Princess’. They had two sons, George, the present Earl of Harewood, born in 1922 and Gerald born in 1923.
Princess Mary was appointed Commandant in Chief of the British Red Cross Detachments in 1926 and she also became Colonel-in-chief’ of a number of regiments. Following the death of her aunt, Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife, she was created Princess Royal by her father on 1 January 1932.
At the outbreak of World War II, the Princess Royal became chief controller and later controller commandant of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS, renamed the Women’s Royal Army Corp in 1949). In that capacity she travelled Britain visiting its units, as well as wartime canteens and other welfare organizations.
After her husband’s death in 1947, she continued to live at Harewood house with her son and his family. She became Chancellor of Leeds University in 1951, and continued to carry out many duties at home and abroad, representing the Queen at the independence celebrations of Trinidad in 1962 and Zambia in 1964. During a trip to Canada in 1962 she became the first woman to be installed as an honorary bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada. Upon receiving this honour she said ‘I have not been a great lawyer, but I’m fast becoming one’. One of her last official engagements was to represent the Queen at the funeral of Queen Louise of Sweden in early March 1965.
The Princess Royal died suddenly of a heart attack on 28 March 1965 while walking in the garden with her eldest son and his family and she is buried on the Harewood estate.
Back in 1952 however, what was by then the Western Region of British Railways was called upon to make another locomotive name switch for the benefit of the Royal Family – although this time in the more sombre circumstances of the death of His Majesty King George VI.
4082 “Windsor Castle” had been viewed as the Great Western’s Royal locomotive from 28 April 1924 when King George V accompanied by Queen Mary drove it from Swindon works to Swindon station – a feat emulated by his grand daughter Princess Elizabeth in November 1950. Plaques were mounted on the side of 4082 to commemorate King George V’s turn at the regulator.
Unfortunately when King George VI died suddenly in February 1952 locomotive 4082 was in Swindon works for repairs, so the cabside number plate, curved nameplate and commemorative plaques were transferred to Post-War Castle 7013 “Bristol Castle”. The identity of 7013 was similarly moved to the 1924 vintage 4082 and the two 4-6-0s impersonated each other until both were scrapped in the mid 1960s.
To complicate matters further, the real 4082 ( now masquerading as 7013 ) received a double chimney in May 1958 and had its original fluted inside valve casing ( the real giveaway to its 1924 vintage ) replaced with a new design of straight casing with a square edge to the tread plate and centre portion raised to clear the exhaust passages.
GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY CASTLE CLASS
Castle class 4-6-0 7037 “Swindon”, built in 1950 and named by the then Princess Elizabeth – now Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II – as the last of 167 such locomotives, pauses with a train at its namesake station. Technically known as the 4073 Class by the Great Western Railway, the Castles led a service life of glamour and excitement which has carried over into preservation.
“Engine No 4073 “Caerphilly Castle” 4-6-0. The first of the latest series of 4-6-0 or ten-wheel four-cylinder simple expansion locomotives, having two outside cylinders driving the middle pair of coupled wheels, whilst the inside drive the leading pair. Is fitted with a large boiler, superheater, Belpaire firebox, and the usual GWR standard appliances. A new type of cab with side windows is provided. Built at Swindon, the total weight of the engine and tender in working order is 120 tons.”
The original 4073 – named “Caerphilly Castle” – was outshopped from Swindon Works in August 1923, just eight months after the Grouping of British railways. It had been designed by Charles Baker Collett, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Western Railway, as a replacement for the Star 4-6-0s which began series production in 1907.
The seven years before the outbreak of war in 1914 saw increases in the weights of main-line passenger trains made possible mostly by the introduction of the ‘Stars’. However, by the time Collett took over from Churchward at Swindon in 1921, holiday traffic from London to Devon and Cornwall was demanding even heavier trains and the GWR management devoted proportionally more money and resources to West of England services from Paddington than to any other routes.
Like the Stars, the new Castles had 4 cylinders and inside Walschaerts valve gear (with two outside cylinders driving the middle pair of coupled wheels whilst the inside drove the leading pair) and the distinctive curved steam pipes which were later to appear on the GWR Kings of 1927 and – retrospectively on some of the Stars.
The Castle’s cylinder diameter was increased from the Star’s 15 to 16 inches although the boiler pressure remained at 225 pounds per square inch. Initially the large number 7 boiler was planned for the Castle design, but after concerns by the Chief Civil Engineer regarding the maximum of 20 ton axle limit, a new slightly smaller number 8 was introduced.
The Castle’s tractive effort was 31 625 pounds at 85 per cent boiler pressure compared to the Star’s 27 800 pounds and the 29 835 pounds, also at 85 per cent boiler pressure, of the first Gresley Pacifics of the LNER. The grate area was increased to 29.4 square feet in the Castle from the 27.07 square feet in the Star. The Castle’s average coal consumption was one of the lowest in the country : 2.83 pounds per drawbar horsepower per hour compared to 4 pounds common for the other railways in the 1920s.
The bar-frame bogie was of standard Swindon design and the superheater was the number 3 type as used in the Star design. The top-feed device for introducing water into the boiler through the steam so as not to lose heat was of GWR pattern, with a series of trays to cause descent into the boiler in a fine spray. The Castles proved highly efficient in working heavy expresses on the red-disc classified main lines that would take their weight.
Much was made in GWR publicity of the Castle’s roomy cab, with side windows and comfortable seats for the driver and fireman, and a canopy extending rearwards for shelter. The Great Western panache was provided by restoration for the first time after World War I of the copper-capped chimney and polished brass safety-valve cover.
The tender attached to the class as originally built was the standard low-sided six wheeler taking six tons of coal and 3 500 gallons of water but this was changed for a 4000 gallon design that emerged in 1926. Both had scoops to pick up water on the move from troughs between the running rails.
4073 “Caerphilly Castle was displayed at the British Empire Exhibition of 1924 and after spending many decades in the Science Museum, London, is now on display at Steam in Swindon – only a few yards from its birthplace. Meanwhile, out on Britain’s working standard gauge network, other Castles – including 15 Stars rebuilt as Castles – were beginning to shake the railway world.
1925 saw 4079 “Pendennis Castle” at work on the LNER alongside A1 Pacifics of a similar vintage. This locomotive exchange proved the worth of the high pressure boiler, long travel valves and unobstructed steam circuit of the Collett ‘7P’ 4-6-0 as did similar work done by 5000 “Launceston Castle” on the LMS in 1926. As a result of the latter trial, Collett’s deputy William Stanier was headhunted by the LMS to become their own Chief Mechanical Engineer and brought more than a touch of Swindon to his Princess Royal pacifics.
Interestingly enough, 4079 “Pendennis Castle” went on to work on foreign metals again sfter preservation: this time in Australia! She journeyed Down Under in June 1977 to run on the Hamersley Iron Railway in Dampier, WA, and in 1989 the 1925 trials were vividly recalled when 4079 went east across the Outback to meet 4472 “Flying Scotsman” – the LNER pacific touring the nation to celebrate Australia’s Bicentenary.
The meeting was even more ironic as one of the 4073s – named Viscount Churchill – was built from parts of “The Great Bear” – the first British Pacific and the only 4-6-2 the Great Western ever owned. In July 2000 however 4079 “Pendennis Castle” was returned to the Great Western Society at Didcot for further preservation.
Back in the late 1920s however, the GWR Castles were taking charge of the Cheltenham Spa Express – the fastest train in the World. Indeed, on 6 June 1932 locomotive 5006 “Tregenna Castle” took a special test train from Swindon to Paddington in 56 minutes 47 seconds. An InterCity 125 today needs nearer 59 minutes to cover the 77.3 mile journey!
World War II put the brakes on high speed running after 1939 although 7032 “Denbeigh Castle” and 7018 “Drysllwyn Castle” both topped the 100 mph mark on “Bristolian” services in the 1950s. Despite 66 members of the class receiving double chimneys after 1956 however, the Castles were to succumb to Western Region dieselisation by the end of 1965.
Of the Castle Class 4-6-0s built between 1948 and 1950, O.S. Nock was to write in the second edition of his book “Kings and Castles of the GWR” (Ian Allan 1969): These engines formed part of a programme authorised by British Railways to to provide additional motive power pending the introduction of the new standard types, and so far as ex Great Western designs were concerned included batches of 4-6-0s of the Hall and Manor Classes.
So far as the Castles were concerned, the new engines were of the Hawksworth variety, with medium degree superheat, mechanical lubrication, and straight-sided all-welded tenders. The running numbers eventually extended to 7037, and this last engine of the class was named “Swindon” by Her Majesty The Queen, when as Princess Elizabeth she visited Swindon Works on 15 November 1950, and drove the Star Class engine bearing her name.
The new engines, together with the earlier members of the class, fulfilled their appointed functions admirably in the difficult conditions of the post-war years, setting up an excellent record of punctual running despite steadily worsening qualities of coal available, even for the highest class of express duty.
Generally, it was the occasional very bad supply that made conditions so difficult. With the very bad coal, timekeeping was often out of the question, but it was the variation from day to day that most enginemen found so trying: reasonably good “Welsh” one day, and a mixture of kitchen nuts and ovoids the next.
With the scheduled start-to-stop speeds of the principal express passenger trains in the 55 to 60 mph range, the train loads around 350 to 400 tons the overall results were satisfactory, and individual performance often as brilliant as at any time in the history of the Great Western Railway four cylinder 4-6-0 locomotives.
It was another matter when the management of the Western Region of British Railways decided to restore some of the fastest and most exacting pre-war schedules, including “The Bristolian” running each way between Paddington and Bristol in one and three quarter hours at average speeds of 67.7 mph Down (via Bath and Chippenham) and of 67.2 mph Up over the slightly shorter route via Badminton.
The programme included the restoration of pre-war speed with the Cornish Riviera Express, The Torbay Express, and the introduction of faster schedules than anything previously operated between Paddington, Newport and Cardiff.Means had to be found of maintaining pre-war standards of reliability in steaming with fuel available in the 1950s.
On the Great Western Railway, Churchward’s locomotive practice had been based on the availability of ample supplies of first-class Welsh coal. Generations of enginemen had been trained to use it to the best advantage, maintaining boiler pressure at a few pounds per square inch below the rated blow-off pressure throughout the run.
This was no remote ideal. It was achieved day-in day-out in every express link on the line, and thus assured of constantly maintained boiler pressure Churchward could use a low degree of superheat, with advantageous results in the upkeep of boilers, tubes, valves and so on, and could use a device like the jumper ring on the blast pipe, which would automatically lift and reduce the back pressure if a driver should tend to be heavy handed and thrash his engine to the detriment of economic working.
Every feature on the Star Class engines was designed to promote low coal, water and oil consumption, and to keep maintenance charges to a minimum. In the 1950s such almost Utopian conditions on the footplate could hardly be expected. The over-riding need was to have reliable steaming. A fractionally higher coal consumption was a secondary consideration.
In these circumstances, the Western Region locomotive department was in the fortunate position not only of inheriting the former GWR stationary testing plant, and a dynamometer car, but also through the farsightedness of F.W. Hawksworth, the last CME of the GWR, being well embarked on the development of entirely new testing techniques.
After Nationalisation these were adopted by the Railway executive as the British standard method of testing, and accordingly the work at Swindon continued without intermission under the leadership of S.O. Ell. On the stationary test plant the technique of draughting was exhaustively studied, and as a result alterations were made to the smokebox layouts of both Kings and Castles.
The jumper rings were removed, thus eliminating the upward limitations of draught previously imposed on all locomotives of Churchward parentage, and by very careful design and experimental work a new combination of blastpipe and chimney was arrived at which substantially increased the maximum steaming capacity of the engines.
With first class coal the maximum steam rate was increased, in round terms, by about 20 per cent over the former maximum. What was more important however was that with inferior coal something approaching pre-war steaming rates could be maintained. The basic coal consumption was increased, but by no more than a modest amount in relation to the increased reliability of the engines in the heaviest express traffic.
The “improved draughting”, as it was termed,formed the second stage of the development from the original Churchward precepts. The first, initiated under Hawksworth, had been the use on both Castle and King class engines of a higher degree of superheat, combined with the use of mechanical lubricators.
The results from improved draughting were so successful that the Locomotive Department could undertake, in every confidence, the working of the “Bristolian” at pre-war speed, as from the summer service of 1954. As when the service was first introduced, in 1935, King Class engines were employed at first; but after a few months of running experience it was found possible to use Castles, without any deterioration in the standards of punctuality.
Before the acceleration of the Cornish Riviera Express to a four hour non-stop run between Paddington and Plymouth, programmed for the summer service of 1955, some further test runs were carried out to convince the Operating Department of its practicability with King Class engines in the prevailing conditions.
By way of further demonstrations, test runs were also made with a Stanier Pacific engine from the London Midland Region. The summer service of 1955 saw a more general acceleration of the express train services, including those from London to Torbay, and the promised improvements on the Paddington – South Wales runs via the Severn Tunnel.
In the early spring of 1955 the Swindon stationary testing plant was running the British Railways Class 8 three cylinder 4-6-2 locomotive 71000 “Duke of Gloucester” which had a double blastpipe and chimney. At the time, R.A. Smeddle was Chief Mechanical and Electrical Engineer, Western Region, and with a view to improving still further the performance of both the Kings and Castles he instructed Ell to prepare a double-exhaust layout for both classes.
The improved draughting arrangement fitted to all Kings and to many Castles had been a very simple and cheap conversion; but consideration had next to be given to a more thorough modernisation. The hard work entailed was showing up weaknesses in the frames of the Kings in particular – not surprising as the majority of the class was by then nearly 30 years old.
Although plans for the replacement of steam by diesel traction were by then well under way it was evident that steam would have to carry on for a further term. No new engines of Class 8 capacity could be built, and so an extensive rebuilding programme was authorised.
Concurrently with the fitting of all the King Class engines with double blastpipes and chimneys, new cylinders were fitted, though cast to the original patterns. Using a technique first introduced at Crewe, new sections of frame were fitted at the front end, cutting the old plates away, welding the new sections on to the rearward portions which were still serviceable.
There is no doubt that the performance of the double chimneyed engines would have been still further enhanced had the cylinders been redesigned to provide for full internal streamlining; but the cost of making the necessary new patterns precluded any further refinement.
A number of Castle Class engines were also equipped with double blastpipes and chimneys, and although these showed an improved performance the difference was not considered to be such as to warrant altering the whole class. In any case many of the Castles were relatively new engines.
Following the Hawksworth developments in superheating, a series of dynamometer test runs was made, betwen Paddington and Cardiff, with the three variety of Castle originally provided, namely the Collett standard engine with low superheat and hydrostatic lubricator; the Hawksworth medium superheat engine and the experimental rebuilt engine 5049 “Earl of Plymouth” with high degree superheating.
Although mechanical lubrication was standardised on the medium superheat engines numbered from 7000 to 7037 the two original engines of this series, 5098 “Clifford Castle” and 5099 “Compton Castle” had hydrostatic lubricators, and it was 5098 “Clifford Castle” that figured in the comparative trials.
In the second edition of his book “Kings and Castles of the GWR” (Ian Allan 1969) O.S. Nock continued to write about some of the more memorable Castle performances in the final days before Western Region dieselisation.
The first of these involved 5059 “Earl of St Aldwyn” at the head of the Up Torbay Express on its summer mid-week working. With a load of 11 carriages weighing 387 tons tare and 425 tons loaded, the train was scheduled to cover the 173.5 miles from Exter to Paddington via Castle Cary and Newbury in 175 minutes. Nock’s narrative began:
“On this occasion I was on the footplate with Driver Trendall and Fireman Bascomb of Newton Abbot. The initial allowance of 34 minutes to pass Creech Junction [east of Taunton] is extremely sharp, including a point-to-point time of 9 minutes 30 seconds for the 13.4 miles downhill from Whiteball summit.
The driver did not press his engine unduly up the long bank from Exeter, and a fast descent of Wellington bank with a sustained maximum speed of 86 mph was not enough to keep point-to-point time on that stage. But there was method in this working because time could be gained over the Langport cut-off line, and the climbing of the long 1 in 264 rise to Somerton tunnel at a minimum of 60 miles per hour was an excellent piece of work.
Then unfortunately a minor mishap to a preceding train caused a signal stop of 5 minutes 30 seconds before Castle Cary [58.4 miles east of Exeter] and a further delay afterwards so that after climbing the Bruton bank at much lower speed than normal we were 13 minutes 25 seconds late on passing Blatchbridge Junction [71.2 miles east of Exeter].
By that time we were going well again, and five minutes were recovered on the fast schedule onwards to Paddington, despite a signal check outside Reading. This schedule was planned for the working of a 350 ton load and included an 8 minute recovery time.
Our running showed a net gain of exactly eight minutes, but this had been achieved with one extra coach, making a tare load of 387 tons. Although this shows a standard of performance above what was planned for the service, this would not be regarded as anything more than a typically good Castle run. [ The net Exeter-Paddington time recorded by O.S. Nock was 167 minutes]
The work of the Castles at its very finest is shown by the 0830 up from Plymouth. The engine was the last but one built, 7036 “Taunton Castle”, worked by Driver A. Cook and Fireman Hughes of Old Oak Common. The load to Taunton was 14 carriages – 460 tons tare, 500 tons full – and to Westbury was 15 carriages – 490 tons tare, 535 full.
Despite a load of 73 tons heavier, which occasioned a slower start, the hill climbing from Stoke Canon [3.5 miles east of Exeter] to Whiteball was faster than that of 5059 “Earl of St Aldwyn” on the Torbay Express, and a fast descent from Whiteball ensured timekeeping on the first stage, despite a permanent way check to 15 mph.
At Taunton yet another coach was added to this already very heavy train, and the locomotive authorities had an assistant engine standing ready to couple on. But 7036 “Taunton Castle” was in such magnificent form that any suggestion of assistance was disdained, and with a load of 535 tons a magnificent run was made to Westbury.
Outstanding features were the sustained minimum speed of 53 miles per hour up the 1 in 264 gradient to Somerton tunnel, and the remarkable minimum speed of 34.5 mph at the summit of the severe Bruton bank. With some fast downhill running in conclusion we not only kept time but registered a gain of 3 minutes 15 seconds over the schedule.
Unfortunately I was travelling to Chippenham on this occasion and so, leaving the train at Westbury, I was not able to record how this outstanding engine conveyed the train onwards to Paddington. In contrast to these heavy-load runs on the West of England main line the working of Castles on the high speed Bristolian express always provided some excitement.”
In his book, O.S. Nock tabulated two Up Bristolian runs with the very free running double chimneyed 7018 “Drysyllwyn Castle”.
“On the first of the two runs, with Driver W.H. Brown, I was on the footplate. The start, up the 1 in 75 gradient of Filton incline, always needed careful handling, because if an engine was pounded hard to keep strict point-to-point time at Filton Junction [4.8 miles towards Paddington from Bristol Temple Meads] the fire could be torn about, and the resulting holes would cause poor steaming for many miles afterwards.
Thus, the engine was not pressed, falling to a minimum speed of 30 mph, and she was allowed to find her own pace up the long 1 in 300 gradient to Badminton. By that time, generally, the engine of the Up Bristolian was thoroughly warmed up and producing a fine output of power. On the corresponding 1 in 300 descent to Little Somerford [27.9 miles from Bristol on the 117.6 mile journey to Paddington] a speed of 94 mph was attained, and then after easing through Wotton Basset, and taking the slight rise to Swindon there came a long sustained fast spell of running.
Speed averaged 88.8 mph over the 26.8 miles from Shrivenham to Goring with a maximum of 91 mph, and with fine subsequent running and a complete absence of checks Paddington was reached 8 minutes early. The companion run, logged by a friend who is a very experienced recorder, was made at a time when certain very hard runs were made to determine whether some further acceleration of schedule might be possible.
I believe it is the fastest end to end time made by a steam engine in the Up direction. The engine was pressed rather harder than usual in the early stages , with speeds of 33 mph up the Filton bank and an acceleration to 73 mph at Badminton [17.6 miles from Bristol]. A maximum speed of exactly 100 mph at Little Somerford put the finishing touch on a remarkable initial effort, by which Driver Russe gained two minutes on Driver Brown by the time Shrivenham [46.1 miles from Bristol] was passed.
From there onwards to Ealing [111.9 miles from Bristol] the two runs were virtually deadheated, with times of 46 minutes 50 seconds and 46 minutes 31 seconds over this stretch of 65.8 miles. After that Driver Russe made the faster finish, and ended with the record time of 93 minutes 50 seconds from Bristol to Paddington.”
O.S. Nock also commented:
“The Castles surely held a record immunity for mishap. The only one to be involved in a serious accident was 4091 “Dudley Castle” which, in the early hours of 2 July 1941, crashed head on into the engine of a Down freight train on the diamond crossing of Dolphin Junction near Slough.
The Up Plymouth express worked by 4091 “Dudley Castle” was to be diverted to the relief line. The signalman thought the Down freight had come to a stand, and lowered the signals for the express to cross over. Far from being safely at a stand, the freight was over-running its signals and a severe collision resulted in five passengers being killed.
On two other occasions Castles had narrow escapes, as when the midnight express from Paddington to Birkenhead, drawn by 4088 “Dartmouth Castle” was fouled and partially wrecked by a goods train derailment at Appleford Crossing near Didcot on 13 November 1942. 4088 “Dartmouth Castle” and the two leading vans were, however, clear before the overturning wagons struck the train.
5061 “Earl of Birkenhead” was concerned in a most alarming night collision at a level crossing on the Chester line. The train was travelling at between 70 and 75 mph when a car was struck, and Driver Jack Edwards, of Shrewsbury, told me afterwards how the engine rocked wildly from side to side, but with the greatest of good fortune kept the rails.
THE KING CLASS 4-6-0s OF THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY
Preserved Great Western Railway King 4-6-0 6024 “King Edward I” rests at Hereford during Pathfinder’s Citizen newspaper sponsored Severn Wye railtour during Easter 1993. When the Kings were first built in 1927, the Great Western Railway’s publicity department made the most of the new 6000 Class having the highest tractive effort in Britain – 40 300 lb against the 33 500 lb of the Southern Railway’s 1926 vintage Lord Nelson class – and the longest non-stop run from London to Plymouth.
The “King” names themselves – chosen ahead of Cathedrals – too were an inspired choice for such powerful, regal and dignified engines – exceedingly photogenic with their clean, uncluttered, angular lines, and rivets which caught the light. Their taper boilers, copper-capped chimneys and brass bonnet safety valve covers also made the new machines the logical zenith of Great Western styling – just as Charles Collett had with them reached the final incarnation of big four-cylinder 4-6-0 design, although 1950s modifications gave them a completely new lease of life and they staged a brilliant Indian summer with the end of steam on Western Region.
The original design of 1927 featured a boiler pressure of 250 pounds per square inch – an advance of 25 psi over conventional Swindon’s practice at the time – and had a driving wheel diameter of 6′ 6″ : a reduction of 2½” from the 6′ 8½” of the Stars and Castles.
The King valve gear was the standard Churchward adaptation of the Stephenson link motion set between the frames, with the outside cylinders worked by rocker arms. Despite this however, the Kings incorporated a host of new non-standard components including the first windscreen wipers fitted to a GWR locomotive – albeit a manual one on the driver’s side only.
Careful attention was paid to free steam flow to and from the large 16¼ ” by 28″ cylinders and, like the Castles, they had very long-lap valve travel. The Kings however, despite the good balancing inherent in a four cylinder layout – were heavy engines with a 22½ ton axle loading and as a result their route availability, Double Red in GWR terms, was restricted.
They were not allowed west of Plymouth, or north of Shrewsbury (in theory), or on the Oxford to Worcester or Swindon to Gloucester route. On the other hand, their great attribute was their sure-footedness, vividly illustrated by the way 6018 “King Henry VI” stalked through the tunnels out of Kings Cross in the 1948 Locomotive Exchanges.
The Kings were also readily identifiable from the Stars and Castles by their new plate frame bogie design with outside bearings for the leading axle and inside bearings for trailing to give adequate clearance on curves. Each wheel was independently sprung, although coil springs to give longer vertical travel yet more positive control were added after a derailment of 6003 “King George IV” on 10 August 1927: some four decades ahead of the tare/load suspension issues later experienced by Gloucester RCW built Cemflo wagons.
The doyen of the class, 6000 “King George”, was completed in June 1927, fitted with a Westinghouse air brake and quickly shipped across the Atlantic to participate in the Fair of the Iron Horse: the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad centenary celebrations from 24 September to 15 October 1927. The bell and plaques commemorating its appearance on behalf of all British railways are still carried by the locomotive today and in Great Western service locomotive 6000 was popularly known as “The Bell’.
As well as the Great Western London-Wolverhampton service, the Kings were mainly deployed on the West of England main line between Paddington and Plymouth where their great weight-pulling ability and good adhesion were put to good use on the ferocious South Devon banks west of Newton Abbot. Even here, a King often had to be piloted by an elderly 4-4-0 which, when coupled in front of a massive 60xx, gave the impression of a rabbit about to be caught by a very large dog!
The Kings proved very reliable in service and remarkably easy on coal despite Swindon’s reluctance to explore the limits of superheating and an abundance of highly calorific Welsh solid fuel. When William Stanier moved to the LMS it did not take him long to find that inferior coal made advanced superheating essential no matter how good the boiler and front-end design might be. 6022 King Edward III eventually received an experimental four-row high-degree superheater in 1947.
The Kings had an excellent record of safe running, marred only by the involvement of 6007 “King William III” in the January 1936 Shrivenham accident – where the damage was so severe that a completely new replacement locomotive had to be built – and the unhappy driver-error incident at Norton Fitzwarren in 1940 in which number 6028 “King George VI” was badly damaged.
In the aforementioned post Nationalisation Locomotive Exchanges the only ‘foreign’ line that could take the ‘Kings’ was the Great Northern route from Kings Cross to Leeds due to the King’s limited route availability and loading gauge restrictions. Placed in the same class as theLMS Duchess, the LNER ‘A4’ and the SR ‘Merchant Navy’, “King Henry VI” did not show up particularly well and at the time it was stressed that it was burning South Yorkshire coal.
Despite this, 6018 repeatedly demonstrated that it could make clean fast starts from awkward places compared with the difficulties experienced by the Pacifics. The lesson of the 1948 Exchanges was not lost on Swindon, and the work on four-row superheaters was accelerated. In addition, modifications were also made to the draughting arrangement, initially using number 6001 “King Edward VII” as a test-bed.
In July 1953 6001 worked a 796 ton train between Stoke Gifford and Reading at express speeds to evaluate the effectiveness of the new draughting arrangement and covered the 73½ miles between these points in just under 77 minutes, maintaining 67 – 70 miles per hour on easier than level track.
Yet more improvement came in September 1955 with the fitting of double blast-pipes and chimneys inspired by a visit of 71000 “Duke of Gloucester” to Swindon’s stationary testing plant. First 6015 “King Richard III” and then the whole class was modified with all the improvements thus developed. Had 6018 “King Henry VI” been improved in this way in 1948 the Locomotive Exchange results might well have been vastly different and in their last 10 years of use the ‘Kings’ went out in a blaze of glory. In 1954, too, many members of the class were fitted with “Alfloc” water treatment equipment to mitigate the effects of boiler water sediment.
One problem that affected the Kings at this time were fatigue cracks on the front bogie frames. Normally repairs were made simply by welding over the cracks but by January 1956 the cracks became sufficiently numerous that the whole class had to be temporarily withdrawn until stiffening strips were fitted to the bogie frames.
The Kings bowed out during 1962 but unlike the Castles never suffered the indignity of relegation to menial jobs: and as soon as 1971 locomotive 6000 “King George V” returned to steam on British Rail metals. Working out of Paddington on the final leg of a round tour with the Bulmer’s Pullman train that 7 October, “King George V” – seen above passing North Pole Junction, West London and the lens of Michael A. Morant – rather grandly passed the ranks of condemned diesel-hydraulics on the Works ‘dump’ and it was strange to reflect that the Kings replacements had lasted less than a third of locomotive 6000’s working life of 35 years.
Two other ‘Kings’ were saved from the cutters torch, numbers 6023 King Edward II and 6024 King Edward I, and after spells in both the old Swindon Railway Museum ( from 1989) and Steam ( 2000- 2008), 6000 “King George V” can today be seen at the National Railway Museum in York.