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) 6000 Class or King Class is a class of
4-6-0
A 4-6-0 steam locomotive, under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, has four leading wheels on two axles in a leading bogie and six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles with the abse ...
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 ...
s designed for
express passenger work and introduced in 1927. They were the largest locomotives built by the GWR, apart from the unique Pacific (
''The Great Bear''). The class was named after kings of the United Kingdom and of England, beginning with the then reigning monarch,
King George V
George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936.
Born during the reign of his grandmother Que ...
, and going back through history. They handled the principal GWR expresses on the
main line
Mainline, ''Main line'', or ''Main Line'' may refer to:
Transportation
Railway
* Main line (railway), the principal artery of a railway system
* Main line railway preservation, the practice of operating preserved trains on an operational railw ...
from London to the West of England and on the
Chiltern line
The Chiltern Main Line is a railway line which links London () and Birmingham ( Moor Street and Snow Hill), the United Kingdom's two largest cities, by a route via High Wycombe, Bicester, Banbury, Leamington Spa and Solihull.
It is one of tw ...
to Birmingham and Wolverhampton, until 1962 when the class was withdrawn.
Background and development
By 1918, it was apparent to the GWR
chief mechanical engineer
Chief mechanical engineer and locomotive superintendent are titles applied by British, Australian, and New Zealand railway companies to the person ultimately responsible to the board of the company for the building and maintaining of the locomotive ...
George Jackson Churchward
George Jackson Churchward (31 January 1857 – 19 December 1933) was an English railway engineer, and was chief mechanical engineer of the Great Western Railway (GWR) in the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1922.
Early life
Churchward was born at ...
that his
Star Class 4-6-0
A 4-6-0 steam locomotive, under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, has four leading wheels on two axles in a leading bogie and six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles with the abse ...
locomotives would soon be incapable of handling the heaviest West of England expresses without assistance. He therefore proposed fitting the diameter boiler used on his
4700 Class 2-8-0
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, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles, and no trailing wheels. ...
on to a
4-6-0
A 4-6-0 steam locomotive, under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, has four leading wheels on two axles in a leading bogie and six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles with the abse ...
chassis, in 1919, to create a more powerful express locomotive, but was prevented from doing so by the weight restrictions on the GWR main line. The future problem was therefore left for his successor
Charles Collett
Charles Benjamin Collett (10 September 1871 – 5 April 1952) was Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Western Railway from 1922 to 1941. He designed (amongst others) the GWR's Castle and King Class express passenger locomotives.
Education ...
to solve.
On taking up office in 1922, Collett began to develop the more powerful
Castle Class from Churchward's Star Class. However, the design was limited to a maximum axle-loading of due to the weakness of some underline bridges. The new class would not therefore be able to pull express trains with more than thirteen coaches unaided. Following their introduction in 1923, the Castle Class was the most powerful express passenger class in the country in terms of
tractive effort
As used in mechanical engineering, the term tractive force can either refer to the total traction a vehicle exerts on a surface, or the amount of the total traction that is parallel to the direction of motion.
In railway engineering, the term tr ...
, but this honour was lost to the
Southern Railway's
Lord Nelson class in 1926.
The GWR's General Manager, Sir
Felix Pole
Sir Felix John Clewett Pole (1 February 1877 – 15 January 1956) was a British railway manager and industrialist. He was general manager of the Great Western Railway from 1921 to 1929, before becoming executive chairman of Associated Electrical ...
, was anxious for a new design that would once again enable the company to claim to run the most powerful locomotive. Pole agreed to allow Collett to explore a design for a "Super-Castle", subject to getting the tractive effort above . By 1927, a series of bridge renewals had taken place on the Great Western mainlines. This was coupled with the widely known (but as yet unpublished) findings of the
Bridge Stress Committee The Bridge Stress Committee was appointed in 1923 by the UK Department of Scientific and Industrial Research under Sir Alfred Ewing, to investigate stresses in railway bridges, especially as regards the effects of moving loads. Its report, published ...
, which gave engineers a better scientific understanding of the impact of
hammer blow
In rail terminology, hammer blow or dynamic augment is a vertical force which alternately adds to and subtracts from the locomotive's weight on a wheel. It is transferred to the track by the driving wheels of many steam locomotives. It is an out-of ...
, and enabled the GWR Civil Engineer to agree to raise the maximum allowable axle-loading to for the new ‘Super Castle’ class.
Design
Although Collett was nominally responsible for the design of the class, the detailed work was undertaken by his Chief draughtsman
Frederick Hawksworth
Frederick William Hawksworth (10 February 1884 – 13 July 1976), was the last Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Western Railway (Great Britain) (GWR).
Early career
Hawksworth spent his entire career at the Swindon Works of the GWR. ...
. The bulk of the increase in power over the Castle Class was initially achieved through raising the
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 ...
pressure to a maximum of and by increasing the
cylinder stroke from to . These factors together increased the tractive effort to around , slightly below the figure required by Pole.
As a means of increasing the tractive effort to bring it closer to the requested by Pole, smaller 6 ft 6 in (1.981 m) driving wheels were used compared to the standard 6 ft 8.5 in (2.045 m) on the "Castles" and the first six locomotives to be built had their cylinders bored out to giving a further , thereby enabling the ‘Kings’ to achieve a tractive effort of . The smaller wheels also allowed for a wider boiler within the loading gauge to be used.
Later operational experience showed that loading gauge clearance of the outer cylinders was problematic, resulting in their replacement on each locomotive's first major overhaul, which resulted in a reduced tractive effort of .
The new, long, GWR ‘Standard No.12’ boiler was used on only this class. It had a maximum diameter of tapering to . There were 171 x fire tubes, and 16 x flue tubes. The firebox area was , with a tube area of . As built, they had 96 × superheater tubes.
To accommodate larger inner cylinders the distinctive design of the leading
bogie
A bogie ( ) (in some senses called a truck in North American English) is a chassis or framework that carries a wheelset, attached to a vehicle—a modular subassembly of wheels and axles. Bogies take various forms in various modes of transp ...
was adopted, with outside bearings on the fore wheel and inside bearings on the rear wheel.
Production
Twenty locomotives were ordered from the GWR
Swindon Works
Swindon railway works was opened by the Great Western Railway in 1843 in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. It served as the principal west England maintenance centre until closed in 1986.
History
In 1835 Parliament approved the construction of the ...
in 1927 (Lot 243). The first locomotive No.
6000 ''King George V'', appeared in June 1927. It was followed by five others (6001-6005) a month later. The remaining fourteen (6006-6019) appeared at almost weekly intervals between February and July 1928. A second batch of ten locomotives (6020-6029 Lot 267) appeared between May and August 1930.
No. 6007 ''King William III'' was written off after an accident near on 15 January 1936, and was condemned on 5 March 1936. A replacement was built (Lot 309) which may have incorporated some parts from the damaged locomotive; it took the same number and name, and was added to stock on 24 March 1936.
Naming
It was originally intended that the class be named after notable
cathedral
A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...
s, but, following an invitation to feature a GWR locomotive in the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...
's (B&O) centenary celebrations, the GWR decided to make them more notable by naming the class after
British Kings.
Following the death of King George V in 1936, No. 6029 ‘King Stephen’ was renamed ‘King Edward VIII’ after his successor; and following the abdication of the latter in the same year, No. 6028 ‘King Henry II’ was renamed ‘King George VI’ after the new King.
Operations
The class proved to be successful and able to cope with the heaviest express trains at a higher-speed timetable average than the "Castle". Due to their size and weight, the King class was however restricted to the London-Taunton-Plymouth (via both
Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
and ) and the London-Birmingham-Wolverhampton (via
Bicester
Bicester ( ) is a historical market towngarden town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Cherwell (district), Cherwell district of northeastern Oxfordshire in Southern England that also comprises an Eco-towns, eco town at North Wes ...
) main lines. The class was therefore used on the GWR's crack expresses such as the
Cornish Riviera Limited until the end of regular steam hauled express services on the
Western Region of British Railways
The Western Region was a region of British Railways from 1948. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right on completion of the "Organising for Quality" initiative on 6 April 1992. The Region consisted principally of ex- Great ...
, although they needed assistance for the heaviest services over the
South Devon Banks between
Newton Abbot
Newton Abbot is a market town and civil parish on the River Teign in the Teignbridge District of Devon, England. Its 2011 population of 24,029 was estimated to reach 26,655 in 2019. It grew rapidly in the Victorian era as the home of the Sou ...
and
Plymouth
Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west.
Plymouth ...
. They were unable to serve in Cornwall, due to the weakness of the
Royal Albert Bridge
The Royal Albert Bridge is a railway bridge which spans the River Tamar in England between Plymouth, Devon and Saltash, Cornwall. Its unique design consists of two lenticular iron trusses above the water, with conventional plate-girder app ...
, and so when they were hauling the Cornish Riviera Limited, they had to be swapped for a 'Castle' or 'Hall' at Devonport.
King George V in the United States
After six months of operation, No. 6000 was shipped to North America in August 1927 to join in Baltimore & Ohio Centenary celebrations, where its sleek appearance and smooth performance impressed all who witnessed it. ''King George V'' was presented with a brass bell and cabside medallions to mark the occasion.
The application of pressurised oil lubrication showed its advantages over the largely grease-lubricated American Locomotives, and was even incorporated into a later design for the B&O in 1928.
Further developments
No. 6014 was partially streamlined in March 1935 with a hemispherical smokebox door, continuous splashers, straight nameplate and a swept-back cab front. However, the appendages were soon removed, with the exception of the cab.
The class proved to be capable and reliable when using the high-calorific South Wales steam coal, on which the GWR had always relied for its good locomotive performance. However, during the 1948 locomotive exchanges, ''King Henry VI'' performed disappointingly using Yorkshire coal, despite demonstrating the 4-6-0 type's unique sure-footedness when climbing out of
Kings Cross, where
pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
types were apt to slip alarmingly.
As originally built the class had a Swindon superheater with an area of . However, in 1947 experiments were undertaken with a four-row high-degree superheater in No. 6022 ''King Edward III''. As a result, the four-row superheaters were fitted to the whole class, and modifications were also made to the draughting arrangement, using No. 6001 ''King Edward VII'' as a test-bed. From September 1955,
double blast-pipes and chimneys were fitted, initially to No. 6015 ''King Richard III''. Following successful testing the whole of the class was subsequently modified and, as a result, their final years in British Railways ownership saw the very best of their performance, particularly on the steep
South Devon Banks at Dainton, Rattery, and Hemerdon.
Accidents and incidents
*On 10 August 1927, the leading bogie of, then new, 6003 ''King George IV'', became derailed at speed approaching . This led to the suspension arrangement of the unusual bogie being improved.
There have been two serious accidents involving the class:
*On 15 January 1936, a freight train became divided at ,
Berkshire
Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...
. Due to errors by the guard of the freight train and a signalman, an express passenger train hauled by No. 6007 ''King William III'' ran into the six wagons that had been left behind and derailed. Two people were killed. As a result, the locomotive was written off and replaced by another with the same name and number.
*On 4 November 1940, an express passenger train hauled by No. 6028 ''King George VI''
was derailed at ,
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
, locator_map =
, coordinates =
, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
, established_by =
, preceded_by =
, origin =
, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lord_ ...
due to the driver misreading signals. Twenty-seven people were killed and 57 were seriously injured.
List of King Class locomotives
Thirty-one locomotives were built at Swindon, although only 30 were in service simultaneously:
Preservation
As a result of its previous broad-gauge system, the GWR had the largest
loading gauge
A loading gauge is a diagram or physical structure that defines the maximum height and width dimensions in railway vehicles and their loads. Their purpose is to ensure that rail vehicles can pass safely through tunnels and under bridges, and ke ...
of all the pre-nationalisation railways in the UK. To allow for maximum power creation and resultant speed, the GWR designed the King class to its maximum mainline loading gauge, specifically a maximum height allowance of . Consequently, this restricted them as to where they could operate under both GWR and British Railways ownership.
No. 6018 ''King Henry VI'' was the subject of preservation by
Sir Billy Butlin
Sir William Heygate Edmund Colborne Butlin (29 September 189912 June 1980) was a South African-born British entrepreneur whose name is synonymous with the British holiday camp.''#refRiverside, American Heritage Dictionary 2004'', p. 135.#refSc ...
, but the plans never came to fruition and the locomotive was scrapped. Famous film actor
Kenneth More
Kenneth Gilbert More, Order of the British Empire#Current classes, CBE (20 September 1914 – 12 July 1982) was an English film and stage actor.
Initially achieving fame in the comedy ''Genevieve (film), Genevieve'' (1953), he appeared in many ...
expressed a desire to save the locomotive, but those plans never came into fruition.
Developments in high-speed rail from the 1970s mean that ballast depths have increased, resulting in a present decrease in UK pan-network loading gauge height. This has recently started to be reversed with the introduction of pan-European loading gauge standards on some mainlines, mainly originating from ports. The present result of these civil engineering changes is that an original height King locomotive would not pass through various points of the modern
Network Rail
Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...
system, designed to a loading gauge height of .
All three preserved Kings have been on the mainline in preservation but only
6000 ''King George V'' and
6024 ''King Edward I'' have operated on the main line.
Faced with a choice of either not operating their locomotives on the mainline or modifying to allow them to pass within the current restricted UK loading gauge, private societies choose to reduce the height of their locomotives by by: reducing cab and chimney height; modifying some upper pipe work. The National Railway Museum, owners of
6000 ''King George V'', decided to keep this locomotive in its original condition.
Civic heraldry
The
Borough of Swindon
The Borough of Swindon is a local government authority in South West England, centred on the urban area and town of Swindon and forming part of the ceremonial county of Wiltshire.
History
In 1974 the Thamesdown district of Wiltshire was cre ...
commissioned a new coat of arms when it became a unitary authority in 1997. The coat of arms includes an image of 6000 ''King George V'' on the shield, recognising the importance of the
Swindon works
Swindon railway works was opened by the Great Western Railway in 1843 in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. It served as the principal west England maintenance centre until closed in 1986.
History
In 1835 Parliament approved the construction of the ...
in the development of Swindon. The coat of arms of the old Borough of Swindon (1900–74) included an image of
GWR 3031 Class 3029 ''White Horse''.
Audio files
References
Sources
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External links
King Class introduction(Great Western Archive)
No. 6000 King George V(National Railway Museum)
(Great Western Society)
(6024 Preservation Society)
* , contemporary account of the class
{{Authority control
6000 6000 may refer to:
* 6000 (number) and the 6000s
* 6000 List,
list of sanctions proposal published team of Alexei Navalny,
consisting of individuals who are accused of corruption and/or involvement in the war with Ukraine
* The last year of th ...
4-6-0 locomotives
Railway locomotives introduced in 1927
Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain
Articles containing video clips
2′C h4 locomotives
Passenger locomotives