The GWR 101 Class consisted of a single experimental 0-4-0T side-tank

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...

. It was built at GWR

Swindon Works Swindon Works was opened by the Great Western Railway in 1843 in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. It served as the principal west England maintenance centre until closed in 1986. History In 1835, Parliament approved the construction of the Great ...

under the direction of

George Jackson Churchward George Jackson Churchward (31 January 1857 – 19 December 1933) was an English railway engineer, and was chief mechanical engineer of the Great Western Railway (GWR) in the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1922. Early life Churchward was born at ...

in June 1902. Originally built as an oil-burning locomotive 'on Holden's system', it had an unusual boiler containing a firebox constructed as an arched chamber made from fire-bricks, opening to the firetubes in front, and with two oil-burning nozzles at the back. Over this was mounted a short saddle tank for the oil fuel. There was no outer firebox, but the boiler, pressed to , contained 289 firetubes in the lower part and a large steam space above. As soon as July 1902, it was redesigned with a smaller firebox and a single burner. It was given a Lentz boiler with a cylindrical corrugated firebox inside the barrel in 1903. The saddle tank for fuel was removed and oil stored at the rear end of the side tanks. In 1905, the locomotive was rebuilt as a coal burner, with the cab backplate replaced by a bunker. It was intended for light passenger service on the

Wrington Vale Light Railway The Wrington Vale Light Railway was a railway from Congresbury on the Cheddar Valley line to Blagdon, and serving villages in the Yeo Valley located in North Somerset, England. Construction of the line started in 1897 and it opened in 1901. Ne ...

near

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

. However, due to technical issues associated with the design, the locomotive never saw the intended service. It remained at Swindon Works, used as a works shunter. No further engines were built to this design, and the locomotive was withdrawn and scrapped in 1911. Despite it being a unique, obscure and short-lived experimental loco, Hornby have been producing a

00 scale OO gauge or OO scale (also, 00 gauge and 00 scale) is the most popular Standard-gauge railway, standard gauge model railway standard in the United Kingdom, outside of which it is virtually unknown. OO gauge is one of several 4 mm scale, 4 mm-sca ...

model of No. 101 since 1978, in many prototypical and non-prototypical guises. It is currently sold as part of the Railroad range. Hornby have sometimes inaccurately ascribed the whole design to Holden, instead of just the oil-burning mechanism.

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