Maidment David - Great Western, 0-6-2 Tank Classes

GREAT WESTERN

0-6-2 TANK CLASSES

ABSORBED AND SWINDON DESIGNED CLASSES

ABSORBED AND SWINDON DESIGNED CLASSES

DAVID MAIDMENT

First published in Great Britain in 2020 by

Pen & Sword Transport

An imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Yorkshire - Philadelphia

Copyright David Maidment, 2020

ISBN 978 1 52675 205 5

ePUB ISBN 978 1 52675 206 2

Mobi ISBN 978 1 52675 207 9

The right of David Maidment to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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All David Maidments royalties from this book will be donated to the Railway Children charity [reg. no. 1058991] [ www.railwaychildren.org.uk ]

Other books by David Maidment:

Novels (Religious historical fiction)

The Child Madonna , Melrose Books, 2009

The Missing Madonna , PublishNation, 2012

The Madonna and her Sons , PublishNation, 2015

Novels (Railway fiction)

Lives on the Line , Max Books, 2013

Non-fiction (Railways)

The Toss of a Coin , PublishNation, 2014

A Privileged Journey , Pen & Sword, 2015

An Indian Summer of Steam , Pen & Sword, 2015

Great Western Eight-Coupled Heavy Freight Locomotives , Pen & Sword, 2015

Great Western Moguls and Prairies , Pen & Sword, 2016

Southern Urie and Maunsell 2-cylinder 4-6-0s, Pen & Sword, 2016

Great Western Small-Wheeled Double-Framed 4-4-0s, Pen & Sword, 2017

The Development of the German Pacific Locomotive, Pen & Sword 2017

Great Western Large-Wheeled Double-Framed 4-4-0s, Pen & Sword 2017

Great Western Counties, 4-4-0s, 4-4-2Ts & 4-6-0s, Pen & Sword 2018

Southern Maunsell Moguls and Tank Engines, Pen & Sword 2018

Great Western Granges, Pen & Sword, 2019

Cambrian Railways Gallery, Pen & Sword, 2019

Southern Maunsell 4-4-0s, Pen & Sword, 2019

Great Western Panniers, Pen & Sword, 2019

Great Western Kings, Pen & Sword, 2020

Non-fiction (Street Children)

The Other Railway Children , PublishNation, 2012

Nobody ever listened to me , PublishNation, 2012

Front cover photo:

Taff Vale class A tank No.385 at Cathays, 1956. Colour Rail /J.Harrison

6658 with a freight leaving Barry Docks, c1958. John Hodge

T his is my thirteenth book in Pen & Swords Locomotive Portfolio series and ninth that deals with locomotives of the former Great Western Railway. I get asked if my enthusiasm for that railway precludes me from writing about engines of the former LMS or LNER and my response is that I worked for the first fifteen years of my career on British Railways, Western Region, lived on the Southern in my youth and studied German at universities in London and Munich, so I write about the engines of which I had intimate personal experience. I was appointed to a senior role on the London Midland Region in 1982, but by then of course apart from the Vale of Rheidols three narrow gauge tank engines the Regions traction was entirely diesel or electric. Footplate runs on the Duchess of Hamilton between Hellifield and Carlisle in 1984 and Sir Nigel Gresley between Banbury and Marylebone in 1985 to audit safety management on steam specials does not really allow me to claim expert knowledge on these classes! This book covers not just the Great Western 56XX and 66XX 0-6-2Ts designed under the leadership of Charles Collett in 1924, but also the large number of 0-6-2 tank engines used by nine of the South Wales railway companies that were absorbed by the Great Western Railway in 1922, a year before the railway Grouping forming the Big Four.

I am very indebted in particular to John Hodge who worked with me in the 1960s in South Wales (and later at the BRB) who made available to me his vast knowledge of the railways of the Welsh Valleys, his collection of photographs taken in the 1950s and 1960s and has helped me check the locations of many of the photos to ensure I get the captions correct. John has written several authoritative works on the South Wales main line and valleys for Pen & Sword and other publishers, which I see as complementary to this volume. Through John Ive had access to D.K. (David) Jones who holds the copyright to the J & J Collection and photos of Mr S. Rickard. And once more I have had great help and co-operation from Paul Shackcloth of the Manchester Locomotive Society (MLS) on whom Ive relied heavily for photographs of the absorbed railway 0-6-2Ts. Both John and Paul/MLS have allowed me to use their photos free of charge as once again I donate all the royalties from the book to the Railway Children charity ( www.railwaychildren.org.uk ) which I founded in1995 and which supports street-living and runaway children on the railway and bus stations of India, East Africa and the United Kingdom. Other photos have been provided by Laurence Waters of the Great Western Trust at Didcot and Paul Chancellor of Colour-Rail at reduced costs or with personal donations for the same cause. I also thank the Welsh Railways Research Circle for permission to use their maps of the pre-1922 valley railways whose locomotives are described in this book. For much of the technical information, I am reliant on the RCTS Engines of the Great Western Parts 5 and 10, and the Irwell Press books by Ian Sixsmith have been helpful sources for statistical information on the 56XX and 66XX class.

I thank Janet Brookes, John Scott-Morgan and the team at Pen & Sword Book Publications for their continued support and professionalism and Carol Trow, who professes to enjoy reading and editing my books.

David Maidment

October 2019

I spent the early ten years of my railway career in South Wales. After a couple of years in the Western Regions London Division, I undertook training in the Swansea and Cardiff Districts and South Wales Division in 1962 and 1963, which included temporary posts at Margam, Pontardawe and Fishguard. At the end of my training I was appointed as Stationmaster Aberbeeg in the Western Valley and then Area Manager Bridgend which included the Llynfi, Garw, Ogmore and Ely Valleys as well as the main Cardiff-Swansea route between St Fagans and Stormy Down, near Pyle. I had much interaction with steam traction in the first couple of years but during my time at Aberbeeg in 1964, the English Electric Type 3s (class 37) were ousting the panniers, 56XX and Churchward 42XX and 72XX, and by the time I reached Bridgend in 1965, Tondu and Llantrisant depots had closed to steam and the survivors were seen mainly at weekends on engineering trains.