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 ...
(GWR) 2221 Class or County Tank was a class of
4-4-2T
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, represents a configuration of a four-wheeled leading bogie, four powered and coupled driving wheels, and two trailing wheels supporting part of the we ...
steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...
, effectively a tank engine version of the
3800 "County" Class 4-4-0
4-4-0 is a locomotive type with a classification that uses the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement and represents the arrangement: four leading wheels on two axles (usually in a leading bogie), four po ...
tender locomotives. The two classes had different boilers, standard no 4 for the tender locomotive, and the smaller (by about ) standard no 2 for the tank. 2230 was fitted with the larger boiler when new, but this was unsuccessful and was quickly altered.
Construction
Thirty were built between 1905 and 1912 to replace the
3600 "Birdcage" Class. They were built in three batches of ten, the batches having minor differences. In the final batch the drop in the front framing above the cylinders was curved, the cylinders were also lower, superheaters and top feed were fitted from new. Later in life, the earlier members of the class were fitted with superheaters, and some were given larger bunkers in line with other standard tank classes.
Use
Their work was concentrated on London suburban services. They were replaced by the more versatile
GWR 6100 Class from 1931 onwards, the last going in 1934. Their large four coupled driving wheels were suited to high speed running on outer suburban services but acceleration was slower than that of the six coupled, smaller wheeled locomotives.
Reputation
Like the Counties, they had a reputation for rough riding, caused by their short coupled wheelbase and large outside cylinders. None survived into preservation.
See also
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List of GWR standard classes with two outside cylinders
George Jackson Churchward created for the Great Western Railway a family of standard classes of locomotive, based on a limited set of shared dimensions and components, and his principles were followed by his successors. Most of these locomotives ...
References
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External links
2221 'County Tank' class
4-4-2T locomotives
2221 Class
Scrapped locomotives
Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain
Railway locomotives introduced in 1905
{{UK-steam-loco-stub
Passenger locomotives