The GWR 2021 Class was a class of 140
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, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the loco ...
s. They were built at the
Wolverhampton railway works
Wolverhampton railway works was in the city of Wolverhampton in the county of Staffordshire, England. It was almost due north of the city centre, and is commemorated with a small display of level crossing gates and a plaque. Known as the Staffo ...
of 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 ...
between 1897 and 1905. 1897 was the very year of
George Armstrong's retirement, so it is uncertain if the design should be attributed to him or to his superior at Swindon,
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.
In fact the 2021s were simple enlargements of the Armstrong-designed
850 class of 1874. The changes were fundamentally confined to a longer wheelbase to permit fitting of a larger firebox.
History
The class was built in eight batches:
* 2021-2030 (Lot D3, 1897)
* 2031-2040 (Lot F3, 1897–8)
* 2041-2060 (Lot G3, 1898–9)
* 2061-2080 (Lot H3, 1899–1900)
* 2081-2100 (Lot J3, 1900–01)
* 2101-2120 (Lot K3, 1902–3)
* 2121-2140 (Lot L3, 1903–4)
* 2141-2160 (Lot M3, 1904–5)
Rebuilding with
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 sq ...
es commenced in the early years of the
Churchward era. Unsuccessful attempts to form a
saddle tank around the firebox directly led to the switch to
pannier tanks. The rebuilding of the whole class took place over many years. In their final form, with or without fully enclosed cabs, 110 of them survived into
British Railways ownership, the last of them being retired in 1959. They were superseded by the short-lived
GWR 1600 Class, nominally a
Hawksworth design, but in reality a straightforward update of the then 75-year-old design, with new boiler, bigger cab and bunker.
Coachwork
When
autotrains were introduced on the GWR, a trial was made of enclosing the engine in coachwork to resemble the coaches. Nos 2120 and 2140 of this class were so equipped in 1906, as were two
517 class 0-4-2Ts. The experiment was unpopular with engine crews, and the bodywork removed in 1911.
See also
*
GWR 0-6-0PT – ''list of classes of GWR 0-6-0 pannier tank, including table of preserved locomotives''
References
Sources
* Ian Allan ABC of British Railways Locomotives, 1948 edition, part 1, pp 16,51
*
*
2021
File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...
0-6-0ST locomotives
Railway locomotives introduced in 1897
Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain
Scrapped locomotives
Mixed traffic locomotives
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