The

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 mill ...

(GWR) 1600 Class is a class of 0-6-0 pannier tank steam locomotive designed for light branch lines, short-distance freight transfers and shunting duties.

History

The class was based on the 2021 class designed by Dean and built from 1897 onwards. The 2021 class was in its turn an enlargement of the 850 class designed by Armstrong in 1874.

Construction and operations

The 1600 Class was a pure GWR design but all 70 were built by the

Western Region of British Railways The Western Region was a region of British Railways from 1948. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right on completion of the "Organising for Quality" initiative on 6 April 1992. The Region consisted principally of ex-Great We ...

. When the last member of the class was built in 1955, the basic design was over 80 years old; No. 1669 was the last one built, and in turn was the last GWR-design locomotive constructed at

Swindon Works Swindon railway 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 ...

. BR gave the 1600 class the power classification 2F. Two locomotives (1646 and 1649) were transferred to the

Scottish Region The Scottish Region (ScR) was one of the six regions created on British Railways (BR) and consisted of ex-London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) and ex-London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) lines in Scotland. It existed from the creation ...

in 1957 and 1958 to operate the Dornoch Light Railway. The class's service life was short; withdrawals started in 1959 and all were gone by 1966, with 1659 having the shortest service (built 1955, withdrawn 1960). Two were sold for further use to the

National Coal Board The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "v ...

: 1600 in 1959 (scrapped 1963), and 1607 in 1965 (scrapped 1970). The last three in BR service were Nos. 1628, 1638 and 1660, all withdrawn from

Croes Newydd Croes Newydd was a large steam locomotive shed, marshalling yard and junction in Wrexham, in Wales. History The Wrexham and Minera Railway was opened on 22 May 1862, with little ceremony except a note from the Traffic Manager of the Great We ...

shed.

Preservation

GWR Class 1076 Pannier No 1638 (13643903223)

No. 1638 was the only member of the class to have been preserved. It was purchased in 1966 from BR for the Dart Valley Railway. In 1992 it was sold to its present home on the

Kent and East Sussex Railway The Kent and East Sussex Railway (K&ESR) refers to both a historical private railway company in Kent and East Sussex in England, as well as a heritage railway currently running on part of the route of the historical company. Historical compa ...

, and is currently operational after its latest overhaul was completed in 2016.

References

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External links

1600 tank class
0-6-0PT locomotives

1600 __NOTOC__ In the Gregorian calendar, it was the last century leap year until the year 2000. Events January–June * January 1 – Scotland adopts January 1 as New Year's Day instead of March 25. * January ** Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of ...

Railway locomotives introduced in 1949 Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Mixed traffic locomotives {{UK-steam-loco-stub

History

Construction and operations

Preservation

See also

References

External links