GWR class 5600

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Great Western Railway 5600 class
6685 at the Aberbeeg Locomotive Depot, April 1951
6685 at the Aberbeeg Locomotive Depot, April 1951
Numbering: 5600-5699, 6600-6699
Number: 200
Manufacturer: GWR Swindon Works (150);
Armstrong-Whitworth (50)
Year of construction (s): 1924-1928
Retirement: 1962-1965
Axis formula : C1 '(0-6-2T)
Type : C1 'h2t
Genre : GWR: D
BR: 5MT
Gauge : 1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Starting tractive effort: 115 kN (25,800 lbf )
Coupling wheel diameter: 1,410 mm (4 ft 7 1 ⁄ 2  in )
Driving wheel diameter: 1,410 mm (4 ft 7 1 ⁄ 2  in )
Rear wheel diameter: 1,118 mm (3 ft 8 in )
Control type : Stephenson
Number of cylinders: 2, inside
Cylinder diameter: 457 mm (18 in )
Piston stroke: 660 mm (26 in )
Boiler overpressure: 1.38 MPa (200 lbf / in² )
Water supply: 8.6 m³ (1,900 imperial gallons )
Fuel supply: 3.81 t (3.75 long tons) coal
Drive: steam
Control: Piston valve

The GWR Class 5600 is a series of 0-6-2T - steam locomotives that were created from 1924 to 1928. CB Collett designed them for the British Great Western Railway (GWR) and they entered service in 1924. After the " Grouping " (amalgamation of railway companies under the Railways Act 1921) of 1923, Swindon took over a large and varied collection of locomotives from former Welsh railway companies that did not fit into their standardization program. Numerous GWR boiler inspectors gave their assessments, whereupon many original locomotives, most of which were still operational, were taken out of service.

200 GWR class 5600 locomotives were built to replace them and remained in service between 1962 and 1965 until they were retired by British Railways . Nine locomotives were preserved.

Background: Welsh 0-6-2T types

The railways in South Wales apparently had a preference for the 0-6-2T type, as the services they served required high friction, high performance and good braking, but no need for higher speeds or speeds because of the short distances between shafts and ports There were water and coal supplies. The 0-6-2 construction seemed suitable for the tight curve radii prevalent in the region. These Welsh locomotives were taken over by GWR during grouping in 1923. They were distributed among the predecessor companies as follows:

Railway company number
Alexandra (Newport and South Wales) Docks and Railway 4th
Barry Railway 72
Brecon and Merthyr Tydfil Junction Railway 18th
Cardiff Railway 13
Neath and Brecon Railway 5
Port Talbot Railway and Docks Company 7th
Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway 19th
Rhymney Railway 101
Taff Vale Railway 209

The locomotives were partially rebuilt with conical long boilers . Some of them became the property of British Railways (BR) in 1948 , including (with some gaps in the numbering):

Many of the Taff Vale Railway's locomotives remained in service until the 1950s, but only two of them, TVR 'O1' No.28, the last locomotive built in Wales, and TVR 'O2' No.85, have survived.

Origins

When the GWR took over the Welsh valley lines, their 0-6-2T locomotives found the approval of the Welsh locomotive crews. Instead of a redesign, the class 5600 was a "swindonized" version of the class M and R locomotives of the Rhymney Railway . The 1904 M class (and the similar 1909 R class) were successful designs ideal for pulling heavy coal trains over a relatively short distance.

The 5600 class was specially developed for use in South Wales and replaced the old, worn-out locomotives that were "inherited" in 1923 when the smaller railroad companies were forcibly incorporated into the GWR during grouping. Contrary to this trend, the Rhymney Railway's more modern 0-6-2s were generally in good condition and had proven themselves. So they became the template for the 56xx.

The first of five R-Class locomotives was refueled by the GWR in 1926 and a single M was modernized in 1930. In this form, both were outwardly hardly distinguishable from the 56 class.

construction

The design of the 5600 class followed Great Western Railway practice as much as possible, using many standardized parts. Collett's innovations included a standard No. 2 boiler suitable for the 5600 series as well as Class M and R Rhymney locomotives with the brass GWR safety valve housing and the copper-clad chimney.

They were large tank locomotives , 37 ft 6 in long and weighing 62 tons. The side tanks held 1,900 gallons of water. The cab, coal and water box were similar to the 31xx and 42xx classes. One hundred locomotives were built in the GWR workshops in Swindon from 1924 to 1927.

From 1927, another 100 similar machines were built - they were a little heavier and were numbered in the 66xx series. Swindon built numbers 6600 to 6649 in 1927 and 1928; the numbers 6650-6699 were built by Armstrong-Whitworth in 1928 . This led to some minor design differences from the Swindon locomotives.

While they were powerful machines, the 5600s were very unpopular with the locomotive crews at the time. They were plagued with numerous problems, the most common of which were axle bearings that ran hot. They lacked the larger bearing tolerances that the original locomotives of the Welsh companies had. They also tended to derail, so that the locomotive crew preferred to drive them backwards when the Bissel frame could take the lead in tight curves. When the Welsh railroad workers discovered that the new GWR Class 5700 0-6-0 pannier tank (introduced in 1929) was even better suited to the same job - shorter and lighter, with roughly the same (slightly less) pulling force - no more were made Class 56xx / 66xx locomotives built.

The 5600 Class was the only locomotive with a 0-6-2 wheel arrangement newly built by the GWR . Nevertheless, a little more than 400 locomotives with this wheel arrangement were in use from 1940 to 1945, which shows the large number of vehicles taken over in 1923.

The class 5600 locomotives belonged to the GWR power class "D" and to the axle load class "Red", to the British Railways to the power class "5MT"

Dimensions

  • Locomotive weight:
    • All, 68 tons 12 cwt
    • 5600 Class, 68 tons 12 cwt (69.7 t)
    • 6600 Class, 69 tons 7 cwt (70.46 t)
    • 5600 Class, 62 tons 18 cwt (63.9 t)
    • 6600 Class, 15 cwt more than 5600 (64.67 t)

commitment

6614 with a coal train in Newport

A decline in the coal trade in South Wales in the 1930s resulted in many locomotives being reassigned to other parts of the network. For reasons of stability, many locomotive drivers usually drove the 56xx class backwards in the Welsh valleys (bunker first). The arrangement of the trailing wheels enabled the locomotives to enter the bends better than in the other direction. Typically, the locomotives were used to pull heavy loads bunkers ahead during operation and then smoke chambers ahead on the way back up the valleys .

All 56xx / 66xx locomotives became the property of British Railways when they were nationalized in 1948 and remained in service until 1962, when they were taken out of service quite quickly with the increasing use of diesel locomotives . All were retired by 1965.

Retired locomotives in Swindon

Preserved locomotives

6619 in BR Black, Weybourne

Some ended up in the Woodham Brothers' junkyard in Barry , South Wales , eight of nine surviving machines were rescued from Barry. Most of the surviving locomotives were built in the Swindon Works , three (6686, 6695 & 6697) were built by Armstrong Whitworth .

Since the locomotives were mainly used in South Wales, some railroad fans know the class by the nickname "Taffy Tank". 'Taffy' is a derogatory term for someone of Welsh descent. The 56xx class never officially had this title, however, while the more typical Rhymney Railway M and R class locomotives that they replaced were arguably those originally known as 'Taffy Tanks'.

As of 2017, 6 preserved locomotives have been used, three of which are currently in operation. 5668 is currently being restored from junkyard condition on the Kent and East Sussex Railway, 6634 and 6686 awaiting restoration on Peak Rail and The Barry Tourist Railway. The 6697 is on display at the Didcot Railway Center.

The following locomotives have been preserved:

number Manufacturer Built Retired Working time Current location Current condition Remarks
5619 Swindon Works March 1925 June 1964 39 years, 3 months Nene Valley Railway In operation In BR unlined Black, owned by the Telford Steam Railway . temporarily at the Swindon and Cricklade Railway (intended to remain until Easter 2019)
5637 Swindon Works September 1925 June 1964 38 years, 9 months East Somerset Railway In operation In BR lined Green owned by the 5637 Steam Loco Group
5643 Swindon Works October 1925 July 1963 37 years, 9 months Embsay & Bolton Abbey Railway In operation In BR lined Green, owned by the Furness Railway Trust. Located on the Ribble Steam Railway but is currently on loan.
5668 Swindon Works June 1926 September 1964 38 years, 3 months Kent & East Sussex Railway Refurbishment planned Privately owned. Asbestos stripped in preparation for a boiler refurbishment
6619 Swindon Works January 1928 March 1963 35 years, 1 month Kent & East Sussex Railway Investigation planned In BR unlined black. Owned by 6619 Ltd. The boiler deadline expired on January 1, 2015.
6634 Swindon Works August 1928 June 1964 35 years, 8 months Peak Rail in work-up Owned by Pete Waterman . The restoration was supposed to be carried out by the SVR but never started, moved to Rowsley in November 2017.
6686 Armstrong Whitworth October 1928 June 1964 35 years, 6 months Barry Tourist Railway in work-up Owned by the Vale of Glamorgan Council as part of the Barry Ten
6695 Armstrong Whitworth October 1928 July 1964 35 years, 9 months Swindon & Cricklade Railway in overhaul In BR lined Green, formerly stationed with the Swanage Railway , after a low loader incident in which the trailer collapsed, WSR overhauled and repaired it, now for the completion of this work at Swindon & Cricklade
6697 Armstrong Whitworth October 1928 May 1966 37 years, 7 months Didcot Railway Center Museum locomotive In GWR unlined Green, only one preserved that wasn't in the Woodham Brothers junkyard

Web links

Commons : GWR 5600 Class  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c H. C. Casserley : The Observer's Book of Railway Locomotives of Britain . Frederick Warne , 1955 (revised edition 1960), p. 56.
  2. ^ NJ Allcock, FK Davies, HM le Fleming, JN Maskelyne, PJT Reed, FJ Tabor: DE White (eds.): The Locomotives of the Great Western Railway, part one: Preliminary Survey . RCTS , Kenilworth June 1951, ISBN 0-901115-17-7 , p. 16 & Table I (opposite p. 17), OCLC 650412984 .
  3. ↑ http://cdn.steampowered.com/Manuals/65222/56xx%20Locomotive%20Addon.pdf
  4. ↑ HM le Fleming: DE White (ed.): Part 5: Six-coupled Tank Engines  (= The Locomotives of the Great Western Railway). RCTS , April 1958, p. E75.
  5. ^ A b The ABC of British Railways Locomotives. Part I - Nos. 1–9999 and 70000–99999 also GW Diesel Railcars , Summer 1957 Edition, Ian Allan Ltd., London, p. 12 (in: British Railways Locomotives Summer 1957 , reprint from 2016, ISBN 978-0-7110-3845-5 )
  6. ↑ Brian Haresnape: Collett & Hawksworth Locomotives: A Pictorial History . Ian Allan , Shepperton 1978, ISBN 0-7110-0869-8 , p. 38.
  7. ↑ Keith Morgan: Latest progress on GWR Taffy Tank No. 6695 at Herston Works, Swanage . In: (Swanage Railway News Gallery - Page 118) . Swanage Railway . February 17, 2002.
  8. ↑ Saved loco pulls passengers again . In: BBC News online , February 12, 2006. Retrieved January 10, 2010.