The GWR 388 class was a large class of 310

0-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing wheels. This was the most common wheel arrangemen ...

goods

locomotive A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the Power (physics), motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, Motor coach (rail), motor ...

s built by the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

. They are sometimes referred to as the Armstrong Goods or Armstrong Standard Goods to differentiate from the '' Gooch Goods'' and '' Dean Goods'' classes, both of which were also large classes of standard goods locomotives.

Use

Despite their description as goods engines, for many years they were also used on passenger trains; the class that principally replaced them was Churchward's mixed-traffic 2-6-0s, the 4300 Class of 1919-21. They were used throughout the GWR system where the gauge permitted; principally in the Northern Division to start with.

War service

While the service overseas of Dean's 2301 Class during two world wars is well known, the service of the 388 Class in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

is less often documented. Six of the class were sent to

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

in 1916, two of them returning in 1921; and 16 of them were shipped to

Salonika Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...

in 1917, though the first batch of eight was lost at sea. After the war four of them entered the stock of the Ottoman Railway; another four were returned to the GWR in 1921.

Numbering

The 388 class were built in several batches between 1866 and 1876; many locomotives were given numbers from recently withdrawn locomotives, so they do not run in a continuous series, or even in order of construction. In the following table the "Works Number" is a sequential number allocated by the builder, the "Locomotive number" is the number carried on the locomotive for identification.

Broad gauge

Twenty locomotives were converted to

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...

from 1884 and reconverted to

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

in 1892. * 1196 (1888 - 1892) * 1197 (1887 - 1892) * 1198 (1888 - 1892) * 1199 (1887 - 1892) * 1200 (1887 - 1892) * 1201 (1888 - 1892) * 1202 (1887 - 1892) * 1203 (1887 - 1892) * 1204 (1888 - 1892) * 1205 (1888 - 1892) * 1206 (1884 - 1892) * 1207 (1884 - 1892) * 1208 (1884 - 1892) * 1209 (1884 - 1892) * 1210 (1884 - 1892) * 1211 (1884 - 1892) * 1212 (1884 - 1892) * 1213 (1884 - 1892) * 1214 (1884 - 1892) * 1215 (1884 - 1892)

Accidents and incidents

On 11th November 1890, No. 1100 was struck by a broad gauge boat train from Plymouth at .

Withdrawal

There were numerous withdrawals from around 1920. After 1930 the few survivors were at Oxley, Stourbidge and Wellington, and the last was withdrawn in 1934. As with all Armstrong classes, none was preserved.

References

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gwr 0388 class 0388 GWR 0388 Class GWR 0388 Class Railway Operating Division locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1866 Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Scrapped locomotives Freight locomotives