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) 6400 Class is a class of

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 ...

pannier tank A tank locomotive or tank engine is a steam locomotive that carries its water in one or more on-board water tanks, instead of a more traditional tender. Most tank engines also have bunkers (or fuel tanks) to hold fuel; in a tender-tank locomot ...

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 ...

introduced by Charles Collett in 1932. All 40 examples were 'auto-fitted' – equipped with the remote-control equipment needed for working autotrains. The 1936 GWR 7400 Class was a similar class, without the autotrain apparatus, but with a higher boiler pressure of 180 psi, providing a small but useful increase in power. An initial build of 30 in 1936-1937 was added to by

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

in two batches each of ten locos in 1948 and 1950. These were destined for a short life, the briefest being only nine years. A minor visual difference between the 5400 and earlier 6400, and the later series of 6400, with the 7400 classes was at the join between cab and bunker. The 5400 and early 6400 had an arc whereas the later 6400 and the 7400 class was straight. The early locos also had a lip at the leading edge of the cab roof, whereas the later locos had a plain corner edge. Both classes were closely related to the 1930

GWR 5400 Class The Great Western Railway (GWR) 5400 Class was a class of 0-6-0 pannier tank steam locomotive. They were similar in appearance to many other GWR tank engines but smaller than the ubiquitous GWR 5700 Class. The nominally Collett-designed 5400 C ...

, which was in turn an evolution of both the

Armstrong Armstrong may refer to: Places * Armstrong Creek (disambiguation), various places Antarctica * Armstrong Reef, Biscoe Islands Argentina * Armstrong, Santa Fe Australia * Armstrong, Victoria Canada * Armstrong, British Columbia * Armstrong ...

1874 GWR 850 Class and the Dean 1891

GWR 2021 Class The GWR 2021 Class was a class of 140 steam locomotives. They were built at the Wolverhampton railway works of the Great Western Railway between 1897 and 1905. 1897 was the very year of George Armstrong's retirement, so it is uncertain if the ...

. Thus the basic design was almost sixty years old when new, the

driving wheel On a steam locomotive, a driving wheel is a powered wheel which is driven by the locomotive's pistons (or turbine, in the case of a steam turbine locomotive). On a conventional, non-articulated locomotive, the driving wheels are all coupled ...

s being the main distinguishing factor, apart from the more modern profile. There were also superficial similarities with the

GWR 645 Class The GWR 645 Class was a class of designed by George Armstrong and built at the Wolverhampton railway works of the Great Western Railway (GWR). Thirty-six were constructed between 1872-3, of which three were built for the South Wales Mineral Ra ...

as extant in the 1930s, that also had wheels and

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

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 ...

(and by then pannier tanks and full cabs).

Operations

The smaller wheels of the 6400's permitted operation in hillier locations than the 5400 Class and allocations were initially to the

South Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...

valleys. Engines of class 6400 worked on many of the ex-GWR branch lines in

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

and around Plymouth until the early 1960s, when the lines closed or

diesel multiple unit A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are also ...

s took over services. No. 6430 was a regular engine on the old Tavistock South branch line and would often run with two autocoaches. No. 6412 was based at Gloucester loco shed and operated the last 'Chalford Shuttle'

autotrain The Autotrain was a type of passenger train used in the early 20th century, where the steam locomotive could be remotely controlled from the rear of the train. This meant that the engine would not have to run-around at the end of a journey bef ...

service between Gloucester and Chalford in 1962. Being allocated to Plymouth Laira, the type was tried on the line between Lostwithiel and Fowey although the normal engine was a 1400 Class 0-4-2.

Numbering

There were 40 locomotives in the 6400 Class, numbered 6400-6439 and 50 locomotives in the 7400 Class, numbered 7400-7449.

Withdrawal

The below list shows when all of the original 6400's and later 7400's were withdrawn from service. The members of the GWR 6400 Class and the GWR 7400 Class were No. 6419 and No. 7439 respectively.

Preservation

Three of the 6400 Class have survived to preservation:

In fiction

A 6400 Class loco (no. 6412) was the title character of the British 1970s TV series '' The Flockton Flyer'', which was filmed on the West Somerset Railway where the preserved locomotive was based. (No. 6412 was relocated to the South Devon Railway in 2009.)

Models

Dapol manufacture a model of the 64xx in O scale. Bachmann have recently begun producing models in OO gauge with no. 6407 in GWR unlined green, no. 6417 in BR unlined black and no. 6412 in BR lined Brunswick Green, with an N gauge version (under the Graham Farish brand) to follow shortly with no. 6407 in GWR unlined green, no. 6403 in BR unlined black and no. 6400 in BR lined Brunswick Green.

References

* *

External links

No. 6412 at the South Devon Railway

No. 6435 at the Bodwin & Wenford Railway

{{Authority control 0-6-0PT locomotives 6400 Railway locomotives introduced in 1932 Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Passenger locomotives