GWR 1854 Class explained

GWR 1854 class
Powertype:Steam
Designer:William Dean
Builder:GWR Swindon Works
Ordernumber:Lots 79, 83, 85, 88, 89, 98
Serialnumber:1159–1178, 1201–1220, 1241–1260, 1301–1340, 1433–1452
Builddate:1890–1895
Totalproduction:120
Uicclass:C n2t
Frametype:Inside, plate
Cylindercount:Two, inside
Disposition:All scrapped

The GWR 1854 Class was a class of steam locomotives designed by William Dean and constructed at the Swindon Works of the Great Western Railway. The class used similar inside frames and chassis dimensions to the 1813 Class of 1882-4. In this they differed from the intervening 1661 Class, which had reverted to the double frames of the Armstrong era. Thus the 1854 Class belongs to the "mainstream" of GWR classes that leads towards the larger GWR pannier tanks of the 20th century.

Production

The 120 1854s were built in six batches between 1890 and 1895:

Notes
1890 20 79 1159–1178 1854–1873 align=left
1890–91 20 83 1201–1220 1874–1893 align=left
1891 20 85 1241–1260 1701–1720 align=left
1892 20 88 1301–1320 1721–1740 align=left
1892–93 20 89 1321–1340 1751–1770 align=left
1895 20 98 1433–1452 905–907, 1791–1800, 1894–1900 align=left

Rebuilding

The engines were rebuilt during their working lives with various forms of boiler and saddle tanks, and they were also rebuilt as pannier tanks between 1909 and 1932 as Belpaire fireboxes were fitted. Most of the class worked in the GWR's Southern Division, the majority of them in South Wales. Two examples were to be found in the GWR London Division at time of nationalisation. Numbers 907 and 1861 were allocated to 81E (Didcot) in August 1950. All achieved 1000000miles, and 23 of the class passed into British Railways stock in 1948, the last of them being withdrawn in 1951.

Accidents and incidents

Sources