The

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 mill ...

(GWR) 2600 Class or Aberdare Class was a class of

2-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing whee ...

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 loco ...

built between 1900 and 1907. They were a freight version of the 3300 and 4100 classes, both

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 pow ...

locomotives. Therefore the design was adapted and became a

type; the resulting locomotives were used for hauling coal trains between Aberdare and Swindon.

Numbering

The class began in 1900 with a prototype, No. 33, renumbered 2600 in 1912. The rest were numbered 2601–2680 and were built between 1901 and 1907.

British Railways

British Railways (BR) inherited nos. 2612/20/3/43/51/5/6/62/5/7/9/80 in 1948. By 31 August 1948, only four were left: nos. 2620, 2651, 2655, 2667.

Withdrawal

They were withdrawn from 1934 onwards. Five Aberdares (2640, 2648, 2649, 2652 & 2657) withdrawn in early 1939 were not cut up but stored as

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

reserves. These five reentered service by January 1940. Their withdrawal began again in 1944 until the last member, number 2667, was withdrawn in October 1949. None of the Aberdare class engines were preserved.

References

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External links

2600 'Aberdare' class
2600 2-6-0 locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1900 Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Scrapped locomotives Freight locomotives {{UK-steam-loco-stub