GWR Locomotives: The Prairies

GWR Locomotives: The Prairies

Author: Allen Jackson

Publisher: Amberley Publishing Limited

Published: 2022-11-15

Total Pages: 106

ISBN-13: 1398109649

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The latest volume in Allen Jackson's series examining the locomotives of the Great Western Railway. Profusely illustrated throughout.


The Great Western Eight Coupled Heavy Freight Locomotives

The Great Western Eight Coupled Heavy Freight Locomotives

Author: David Maidment

Publisher: Pen and Sword

Published: 2015-06-30

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 178383109X

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Great Western Eight-Coupled Heavy Freight Locomotives' is the first of a series of 'Locomotive Profiles' to be published by Pen & Sword. It will describe the conception, design, building and operation of the fleet of powerful locomotives built in the first half of the twentieth century to meet the demands of the growing South Wales coal and steel industries and the West Midlands area served by the Great Western Railway. Whilst concentrating mainly on the standard designs of the great locomotive engineer, George Jackson Churchward, the 28XX and 47XX 2-8-0 locomotives, it will also cover the 2-8-0 and 2-8-2 tank engines designed for the South Wales Valleys mining areas and coal exports through Newport, Cardiff, Barry and Swansea Docks, and other 2-8-0 locomotives acquired by the Great Western to cope with the increased industrial needs during both world wars - the RODs, Swindon built 8Fs, WDs and American S160s. It will also cover the earliest designs of the Barry and Port Talbot Railways intended to cope with the valley coal traffic. The book will be copiously illustrated with 150 black and white and 50 coloured photographs and is a comprehensive record of some outstanding freight locomotives, many of the oldest engines still operating to the end of steam on British Railways in the mid 1960s, sixty years after they were designed."


GWR Locomotives: The Manor Class

GWR Locomotives: The Manor Class

Author: Allen Jackson

Publisher: Amberley Publishing Limited

Published: 2019-10-15

Total Pages: 121

ISBN-13: 1445693038

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A fascinating and lavishly illustrated guide to this iconic Great Western Railway locomotive Manor Class.


An Introduction to Great Western Locomotive Development

An Introduction to Great Western Locomotive Development

Author: Jim Champ

Publisher: Pen and Sword

Published: 2018-02-28

Total Pages: 314

ISBN-13: 1473877857

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The first thought, when contemplating a new study of the Great Western Railway locomotive fleet, must surely be to ask what can there be left to say? But there is no single source which gives a general introduction to the Great Western locomotive fleet. There are monographs on individual classes, an excellent multi-volume detail study from the RCTS, and superb collections of photographs, but nothing that brings it all together. This work is intended to provide that general introduction.The volume begins with a series of short essays covering general trends in design development, whilst the main body of the volume covers individual classes. For each class there is a small table containing some principal dimensions and paragraphs of text, covering an introduction, renumbering, key changes in the development of the class and information on withdrawal.The volume concludes with appendices covering the development and types of standard boilers, the various numbering schemes used by the GWR, the arcane subject of locomotive diagrams and lot numbers, and a short reference on the many lines the GWR engulfed.The majority of illustrations are new profile drawings to a consistent format. Described as sketches, they are drawn to a consistent scale, but do not claim to be scale drawings. Much minor equipment has been omitted and the author has certainly not dared to include rivets! Although most are based around GWR weight diagrams, they are not simple traces of the original drawings. Detail has been added from other sources, components copied from different drawings and details have been checked against historical and modern photographs. One must also bear in mind that steam locomotives were not mass produced. Minor fittings frequently varied in position and changes were made over the locomotives' lifetimes. Nevertheless, this collection of drawings provides a uniquely consistent view of the GWR locomotive fleet.


GWR Locomotives: The Hall Class

GWR Locomotives: The Hall Class

Author: Allen Jackson

Publisher: Amberley Publishing Limited

Published: 2019-11-15

Total Pages: 171

ISBN-13: 1445693151

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A fascinating illustrated insight into this iconic Hall Class of locomotuves used by the Great Western Railway.


Great Western, King Class 4-6-0s

Great Western, King Class 4-6-0s

Author: David Maidment

Publisher: Pen and Sword Transport

Published: 2020-08-30

Total Pages: 503

ISBN-13: 1526739860

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An in-depth look at the British railway company’s celebrated class of steam locomotives, with more than three hundred photos. Built by Collett in 1927 after pressure to restore the Great Western Railway’s pre-eminence in motive power and cope with increasing postwar traffic to Devon and Cornwall holiday resorts, the thirty Kings were the final development of the Churchward Stars and the 1923 Castles and remained on top-link main line duty until their final replacement by the ‘Western’ class 52 diesel hydraulics in 1962. This book includes an insight into the thinking of some of Collett’s senior staff at the end of the 1930s and the eventual transformation in the latter years with redraughting and double chimneys. As well as describing their design and construction, the book comprehensively covers their operation and performance, backed up by many recorded logs on all main GW/WR routes over which they were permitted. The author had close experience of the class when working at Old Oak Common between 1957 and 1962, and includes a chapter of his experiences with them, including many footplate trips (as a management trainee, he was greeted with glee by firemen who would hand him the shovel). The book also includes over 300 photographs, one hundred of them in color.


Four-Coupled Tank Locomotive Classes Built by the Great Western Railway

Four-Coupled Tank Locomotive Classes Built by the Great Western Railway

Author: David Maidment

Publisher: Pen and Sword Transport

Published: 2023-06-01

Total Pages: 202

ISBN-13: 1399022598

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This book is a comprehensive history of all twenty-six classes of four coupled tank engines commissioned by the Great Western Railway or built at their Wolverhampton and Swindon Works, from the Broad Gauge 2-4-0 and 4-4-0 tanks of the 1840s and 1850s to the well known Collett 0-4-2 branch line engines of classes 48XX (later renumbered 14XX) and 58XX of the 1930s. As well as the Broad Gauge engines, the strange looking ‘Covertibles’ of William Dean, a number of experimental ‘one-off’ designs, the numerous Wolverhampton 0-4-2Ts of the ‘517’ class and the Swindon built ‘2-4-0 ‘Metro Tanks’ are described with – where known – their allocation and operation. The book includes twenty weight diagrams and nearly 300 photographs, over 50 in color. The four-coupled tank engines absorbed by the Great Western from other companies at or before 1923 will be featured in a separate volume to follow.


Great Western Star Class Locomotives

Great Western Star Class Locomotives

Author: Laurence Waters

Publisher: Pen and Sword

Published: 2017-04-30

Total Pages: 153

ISBN-13: 1473871042

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Designed by G.J. Churchward, no. 40 was constructed at Swindon in April 1906. It was Swindon’s first 4 cylinder simple engine and was the forerunner of Churchward’s famous 4 cylinder Star Class 4-6-0s. Initially built as a 4-4-2 Atlantic, no. 40 was named North Star in September 1906, rebuilt as a 4-6-0 in 1909, and renumbered 4000 in 1913. Including no. 40, the Star class eventually numbered seventy-three locomotives, all built at Swindon in batches between 1906 and 1923. In service the Stars proved to be both free-running and reliable locomotives, and for many years were used to haul the Great Western’s top link services, including the world-famous ‘Cornish Riviera Express’. The introduction of the Collett Castle Class 4-6-0s in 1923, and the King Class 4-6-0s in 1927, saw the Stars relegated to secondary passenger, freight and parcels services. A number of Stars were rebuilt by Collett as Castles, including the prototype no. 4000 North Star, but the remaining Stars continued to give good service. At Nationalisation in 1948, no less than forty-seven of these fine locomotives passed into Western Region ownership, the last example, no. 4056 Princess Margaret, being withdrawn in October 1957. In this book, Laurence Waters charts the history of the class from the prototype, right through to the final workings in October 1957. Using many previously unpublished photographs from the Great Western Trust photographic collection, accompanied by informative captions, every member of the Class is illustrated. This book should appeal to those interested in the history of Great Western locomotive development as well as modellers of the Great Western and Western Region.


The GWR Handbook

The GWR Handbook

Author: David Wragg

Publisher: The History Press

Published: 2017-08-01

Total Pages: 343

ISBN-13: 0750985429

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For many the GWR was synonymous with holidays by the sea in the West Country, but it was built to serve as a fast railway line to London, especially for the merchants and financiers of Bristol. Its operations stretched as far as Merseyside, it provided most services in Wales, and it was the main line to Cardiff, Bristol, Cornwall and Birmingham.This book, a classic first published in 2006, reveals the equipment, stations, network, shipping and air services, bus operations including Western National, and overall reach and history of the GWR.Forming part of a series, along with The LMS Handbook, The LNER Handbook and The Southern Railway Handbook, this new edition provides an authoritative and highly detailed reference of information about the GWR.


Schoolboy, Servant, GWR Apprentice

Schoolboy, Servant, GWR Apprentice

Author: David Wilkins

Publisher: The History Press

Published: 2017-06-02

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 0750983337

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Alfred Plumley, son of a coachman, was born in 1874 in Somerset's Mendip Hills. Written in his old age, this memoir of his youth was discovered in an auction sale. In it, Alfred vividly describes his country childhood and first job as a serving boy at the grand house on the hill above his village. At age 16, Alfred decides to improve his prospects by 'going on the railway' and is sent to a tiny village station on the Somerset coast. He quickly comes to love his new life and, undeterred by an unhappy temporary posting to the grim and chaotic engine yards of Bristol, ends up spending forty-five years as a GWR employee. Alfred writes charmingly, and always with the authentic voice of a West Country lad. His memoir has been edited by David Wilkins who adds just the right amount of detail to place the story in its proper historical context.