The 3201 or Stella Class was a class of

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 ...

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 ...

, designed by William Dean and built at Swindon Works for 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 ...

in 1884 and 1885.

Design

They were part of a standardisation scheme of Dean's, whereby he designed four classes with similar

boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, central h ...

s, double frames, and

cylinders A cylinder (from ) has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base. A cylinder may also be defined as an infini ...

, but of different wheel layouts. The 3201 class was close in design to the 3501 Class, ten of which were built initially as "convertibles" for the

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 ...

, and numbers 3511 to 3520 built as

condensing s.

Construction

Initially there were 5 members of the class. The prototype, No.3201, built in December 1884, was immediately sold to the

Pembroke and Tenby Railway The Pembroke and Tenby Railway was a locally promoted railway in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It was built by local supporters and opened in 1863. The line, now known as the Pembroke Dock branch line, remains in use at the present day. In 1814 a Roya ...

, who named it ''Stella''. It returned to the GWR in 1896 and retained the nameplates until 1902. Nos. 3202-3205 were constructed in the summer of 1885. Between 1892 and 1895 the class was enlarged to 25 locomotives, as the broad and

2-4-0Ts were all eventually converted to standard gauge

tender locomotive A tender or coal-car (US only) is a special rail vehicle hauled by a steam locomotive containing its fuel (wood, coal, oil or torrefied biomass) and water. Steam locomotives consume large quantities of water compared to the quantity of fuel, so ...

s. Tabor notes that "... the uniformity was very short-lived, as the class soon acquired a remarkable variety of boilers."

Use

The original Stellas worked in the Bristol division but after the gauge conversion of 1892 all 25 locos were dispatched to Cornwall, where they worked the principal trains west of Newton Abbot until the arrival a few years later of the 3252 or Duke Class. The class then became widely dispersed; by 1915 many were at Chester or Croes Newydd, others at Birmingham or Stourbridge. Later some went to central Wales. Withdrawals took place between 1919 and 1933.

References

* * {{GWR Locomotives 3201 2-4-0 locomotives 2-4-0T locomotives Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Railway locomotives introduced in 1884 Scrapped locomotives Passenger locomotives