GWR 9400 Class

The Great Western Railway (GWR) 9400 Class is a class of pannier tank steam locomotive, used for shunting and banking duties.

The first ten 9400s were the last steam engines built by the GWR. After nationalisation in 1948, another 200 were built by private contractors for British Railways (BR). Most had very short working lives as the duties for which they were designed disappeared through changes in working practices or were taken over by diesel locomotives. Two locomotives survived into preservation, with the oldest of the class, 9400 as part of the National Collection.

Design

The 9400 class was the final development in a long lineage of tank locomotives that can be directly traced to the 645 Class of 1872. Over the decades details altered, the most significant being the adoption of Belpaire fireboxes necessitating pannier tanks.

The 9400 resembled a pannier tank version of the 2251 class, and indeed shared the same boiler and cylinders as the 2251, but was in fact a taper-boilered development of the 8750 subgroup of the 5700 class. The advantage was a useful increase in boiler power, but there was a significant weight penalty that restricted route availability. The 10 GWR-built locomotives had superheaters but the remainder did not.

The 9400s were numbered 9400–9499, 8400–8499 and 3400–3409. BR gave them the power classification 4F.

Build details + Table of orders and numbers Lot No. Fleet Nos. Manufacturer Serial Nos. Date Notes 365 9400–9409 Swindon Works — 1947 382 9410–9459 Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns 7547–7596 1950–1951 383 9460–9489 Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns 7611–7640 1950–1953 384 8400–8449 W. G. Bagnall 2910–2959 1949–1954 385 8450–8479 Yorkshire Engine Company 2443–65/67–71/66/72 1949–1952 386 8480–8499 Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns 7450–7469 1952 under subcontract from Hudswell Clarke 387 9490–9499 Yorkshire Engine Company 2544–2553 1954–1955 under subcontract from Hunslet Engine Company 387 3400–3409 Yorkshire Engine Company 2575–2584 1955–1956 under subcontract from Hunslet Engine Company No. 3409 was the last steam locomotive built for British mainline use by private contractors, as well as the last steam locomotive built for British Railways to a pre-nationalisation design. It was ordered by GWR in December 1947 and delivered by Yorkshire Engine Company in October 1956.

Operations

The 9400 Class migrated to most parts of the former GWR, with many based in South Wales and at Old Oak Common. Here they were used on Paddington empty stock work until the end of steam on the Western Region in 1965. A common sight on the departure side in 1964–1965 was a worn down 9400 Class locomotive without number plates waiting with a line of Mark 1 coaches.

Numbers 8400 to 8406 served as bank engines on the Lickey Incline after its transferral to the Western Region.

Preservation

Two have been preserved: GWR/BR No. TOPS No. Home base Notes Image 9400 n/a Swindon Steam Railway Museum Part of the National Railway Collection 9466 98466 West Somerset Railway The locomotive is operational and mainline certified. Frequent visitor to the Mid-Norfolk Railway, the Metropolitan Line and other lines running charters, including a special funeral train for its owner. Formerly based at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre privately owned by Dennis B Howells until his death in 2018, the locomotive was subsequently sold to JJP Holdings South West Ltd and was based at the West Somerset Railway after a short return visit to the Mid-Norfolk Railway. It was resident at the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway where it was to remain until its boiler ticket expires at the end of 2025. It has since moved back to the West Somerset Railway in early 2022 following analysis of weight restrictions on the line which concluded that the locomotive was safe to operate on the line once again. It will operate on the West Somerset Railway until its boiler ticket expires in 2025.

See also GWR 0-6-0PT – list of classes of GWR 0-6-0 pannier tank, including table of preserved locomotives

References

Sources

GWR 9400 Class

Bron en licentie