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GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton
Bentley Heath Crossing: gwrbh1612
Photographed on the up line between Widney Manor and Bentley
Heath on 28th September 1910, a Great Western Railway Standard Goods or '388'
class 0-6-0 locomotive carrying a class J headcode, indicating a through
freight train. The quantity of coal piled high above the tender rails indicates
that the engine has only recently been coaled. The standard goods class was
introduced by the Great Western Railway's Chief Mechanical Engineer Joseph
Armstrong in 1866 and became a large class, with 310 locomotives being built
under eighteen different lots during the next ten years. This marked an end of
the use of outside locomotive contractors until the three French compound 4-4-2
locomotives were purchased in 1903-5. The standard goods class had 5 foot
wheels and 17 inch cylinders. As built the locomotives had a variety of boilers
designs fitted, but these were rationalised to the standard No 6 boiler (class
O), which was 11 foot long.
This standardisation allowed parts to be interchanged, but
this did not mean that they were identical and incremental improvements both
internally and externally occurred. Thus although a standard, the boilers
appearance varied. At regular intervals boilers had to be replaced and although
some boilers were reconditioned and reused, most were changed and a new boiler
reflecting the most current design thinking of the time was fitted. Records of
each boiler change were kept and this is often the best guide to identifying a
locomotive, when photograph date is known and the cab side plate or buffer beam
numbers are difficult to read. The boilers can be identified by their shape,
firebox type and the positioning of external fixings such as the dome, chimney
and safety valve. The boiler on the locomotive in the photograph is a round top
parallel boiler with a large brass dome towards the front. This type of boiler
(designated S2) was the standard Swindon boiler design between 1884 and 1894.
It is normally associated with flush smokeboxes and clackboxes on the firebox
sides.
The boiler barrel was of two equal rings with the dome
towards the rear of the front ring. From 1894 the standard Swindon boilers had
their domes repositioned closer to the firebox on the front of the rear ring
and this arrangement is designated S4. From 1901 the more efficient belpaire
firebox was introduced and depending on the dome position these are designated
either B2 or B4. No new B2 boilers were constructed, but it is thought that
several of these were rebuilt from reconditioned S2 boilers. The boiler change
records show that forty six of the standard goods class locomotives had a S2
boiler in 1910, but the closest match to the buffer beam number on this
photograph is No 891. This locomotive was built at Swindon works in February
1874 as part of lot 35 and received a S2 boiler in September 1893. In March
1916 this was changed to a belpaire type boiler (B4). Locomotive No 891 was
withdrawn from traffic three years later in August 1919.
Robert Ferris
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