GWR 1813 Class
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The
Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...
's 1813 Class was a series of 40 built at
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 ...
in two lots of 20 engines each. No. 1813 was sold to the Pembroke & Tenby Railway in May 1883 becoming No.7 ''Holmwood'', retaining this name after being absorbed by the GWR. Nearly all of these engines spent their lives on the GWR's Southern Division.


Construction

The "missing" number 1833 was also an 0-6-0T built in 1882, but not of this class – it was one of Dean's experimental locomotives, being of a different design.


Design

This was the first design of
William Dean William, Will, Bill or Billy Dean is the name of the following people: Arts and entertainment * Bill Dean (1921–2000), British actor * Billy Dean (born 1962), American country music singer Sports * William Dean (Hampshire cricketer) (c. 1882†...
and in its concept and dimensions may be regarded as the precursor of all the larger GWR pannier tanks of the 20th century, such as the
5700 5700 may refer to: In general * A.D. 5700, a year in the 6th millennium CE * 5700 BC, a year in the 6th millennium BCE * 5700, a number in the 5000 (number) range Rail * GWR 5700 Class, a pannier tank steam locomotive train class * Hanshin 5700 s ...
and 9400 classes: * Inside frames * Wheels diameter, wheelbase * Cylinders As built, they had domeless boilers with round-top fireboxes, and side tanks.


Rebuilding


Tanks

Between 1894 and 1906 all but two (nos. 1817/53) of the 1813s were rebuilt with saddle tanks, and between 1903 and 1906, five were rebuilt with either short or full-length pannier tanks, resulting in a very early example of this type of engine. All but one (no. 1829) of the rest were so converted between 1911 and 1927, as had become standard practice on the Great Western.


Boilers

The class also carried an unusually wide variety of different
boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, centra ...
s. With one exception (no. 1817) all of the original domeless boilers were replaced by domed boilers with round-top fireboxes between 1894 and 1902, and these were of two principal types: most had their domes on the front half of the boiler barrel, but some had the dome on the rear half of the barrel. Several locomotives were fitted with both types at different times. No. 1817 had its domeless boiler replaced by a domed boiler having a
Belpaire firebox The Belpaire firebox is a type of firebox used on steam locomotives. It was invented by Alfred Belpaire of Belgium in 1864. Today it generally refers to the shape of the outer shell of the firebox which is approximately flat at the top and s ...
in 1904, and from 1905 onwards, all but two (nos. 1825/9) of the others had their domed round-top boilers replaced by domed Belpaire boilers. Although the round-top type continued to be fitted, there were no reversions from Belpaire to round-top. As with the round-top boilers, the dome could be either on the front half or the rear half of the boiler barrel, but only nos. 1816/43 had the dome at the front, and both were subsequently given replacement boilers having domes on the rear half. The last conversion from round-top to Belpaire occurred in 1927. Beginning in 1915, thirty of the locomotives were provided with
superheater A superheater is a device used to convert saturated steam or wet steam into superheated steam or dry steam. Superheated steam is used in steam turbines for electricity generation, in some steam engines, and in processes such as steam reforming. ...
s, in several cases this occurred when the locomotive was also rebuilt from round-top to Belpaire. All of the superheated boilers had Belpaire fireboxes with the dome mounted on the rear half of the boiler barrel. Just over half of the superheater conversions subsequently reverted to using
saturated steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is ...
.


Withdrawal

Withdrawal commenced in May 1928. Most of the class were withdrawn over the next eleven years, leaving six (nos. 1823/31/5/8/46/7) still in service at the outbreak of World War II. Five of these were withdrawn between 1944 and 1947, leaving one (No. 1835) which alone passed into
British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commis ...
stock, to be withdrawn in January 1949.


References

* * {{GWR Locomotives
1813 Events January–March * January 5 – The Danish state bankruptcy of 1813 occurs. * January 18– 23 – War of 1812: The Battle of Frenchtown is fought in modern-day Monroe, Michigan between the United States and a Britis ...
Steam locomotives of Great Britain 0-6-0T locomotives C n2t locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1882 Standard-gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Scrapped locomotives