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Kings Of The Great Western 1927-1977 By Rex Coffin w dust jacket
Kings Of The Great Western 1927-1977 By Rex Coffin
Hardbound With Dustjacket
104 Pages
Copyright 1977
Contents
Introduction
Nationalization
Preservation
REX COFFIN is a professional photographer with a keen interest in railways. Born within sound of Bristol Temple Meads station, he had his first railway photographs published in the early 'fifties. His involvement with the 6000 Locomotive Association started in 1971 when he took a photograph of 6000 King George V leaving the Severn Tunnel on its historic return to Mainline Steam. He is now the Association's Editor and official photographer.
6000 Locomotive Association
Steam enthusiasts in Hereford were particularly fortunate when 6000, the G.W.R. "King" Class locomotive King George V arrived in Hereford through the good offices of Bulmers Cider. Some thirty of these enthusiasts got together and the 6000 Locomotive Association was founded with the prime object of stewardship of the great locomotive. Membership has risen steadily and now numbers about 300. Quite naturally, the larger proportion of these members reside in territory covered by the Great Western Railway, but the membership is now world-wide. Late in 1973 a Limited Company, "Steam in Hereford, Limited" was formed but the Company continues to trade as the 6000 Locomotive Association, and has the same spirit and objectives.
The major activities of the Association are centred upon the "stewardship" duties with "KGV" and maintenance of the Association's locomotives and rolling stock. These activities require a lot of effort but the Association is run by steam enthusiasts for steam enthusiasts.
The Bulmer Railway Centre was opened in 1968 to house King George V and the Bulmer Cider Train. Following a highly successful weeklong "Return to Steam" tour by the "King" and the Cider Train in 1971, the B.R. ban on steam haulage was lifted and the Centre became the working depot for steam trains on the "North and West" route between Newport and Shrewsbury (and later, Chester).
INTRODUCTION
IT was nearly two years ago that it was suggested I should put together a book to commemorate the 50th Birthday of King George V. On giving the project more thought, I felt that to devote a whole book to K. G. V. as she was affectionately known, would give the impression that it was 6000 that carried all the honours. This is certainly not the case. King George V is given more space than the remainder of the class for several reasons, one being that we of the 6000 Locomotive Association, looking after this superb Locomotive at Hereford, are heavily biased!
My one regret whilst compiling this book is that I have had to use a few pictures that have been published before, but try as I might, I have been unable to find any others that cover certain historic events, such as the building of the Kings, the American visit etc. apart from the official photographs. It has not been possible to do a complete history of the Kings, and I have no doubt some readers will ask "Why did they not mention...?" The reason is either lack of space or that I did not know of the event, in which case I would be only too pleased to hear about it; who knows we may be able to commemorate "60 years a King".
R. 0. Coffin
WHEN CHARLES BENJAMIN COLLETT succeeded G. J. Churchward as Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Western Railway in 1922 he inherited a pressing problem. Churchward's brilliant locomotive, the Star class, had been able to handle all the traffic that had been offered it until the first world war years. After the war, traffic to the West Country increased and the expresses became heavier. Collett realised that to handle this a completely new design of locomotive was not necessary; rather that Churchward's design which had been evolved over the years only needed to be improved and up-dated. After taking over he developed the Star design and, in 1923, the Castle class was built to meet the heavier traffic demands. As has been recorded in many books, the Castles proved to be a very satisfactory machine. In various trials they eclipsed all the other railways and the Great Western Railway held the publicity limelight.
Felix Pole had been appointed as General Manager of the Great Western in June 1921. He was a strong character with a forceful personality, and was determined the Great Western Railway should retain the publicity limelight, and it came as a great shock to this gentleman when he discovered late in 1923, that Collett had scrapped the Great Bear, the first Pacific in Great Britain. Many members of the Great Western Board considered this locomotive to be the best thing to come out of Swindon so far as publicity was concerned. The truth of the matter was that Collett had taken a sensible and economic step. The Great Bear's boiler was worn out and as its size precluded its use on any lines other than the Paddington-Bristol route, and its tractive effort had been surpassed by the Castle, Collett logically scrapped it. To be more precise he chopped the back end off and turned it into a 4-6-0 Castle renaming it Viscount Churchill. One can imagine the atmosphere between Collett and Pole; Collett's explanation of route availability of the Bear set Felix Pole on a minor rampage. He questioned the reason for the weight restriction. The answer was simple - old bridges. J. Lloyd, the Chief Engineer, told Pole that the majority of bridges had been strengthened, but a few on the West of England lines could still only stand a maximum axle weight of 191/2 tons. The strengthened ones could stand more, and so, under pressure from Pole, Lloyd agreed to an axle weight of 221/2 tons for a 4 cylinder Locomotive, as there was less hammer blow from these engines than the 2 cylinder type.
So the scene was set for a much larger locomotive on the Great Western. With the introduction on the Southern Railway of the Lord Nelson class, which had a tractive effort of 33,500 lbs. the spotlight went from the Great Western Railway to the Southern. In view of this, Collett was asked to design an engine well in excess of this tractive effort, and so a super Castle was produced on paper, brought about principally by increasing cylinder diameter, stroke etc. Collett was able to take a design of 39,000 lbs tractive effort to Felix Pole, but even this was not good enough. Pole wanted the magical figure of 40,000 lbs. Collett explained that the only way to do this was to decrease the size of the driving wheels to 6' 6" but this would be of non standard pattern and would put the capital cost up. However, Pole was determined and Collett was given the all clear to proceed with this design.
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