The Great Western Railway 3200 Class (or 'Earl' Class) was a design of 4-4-0 steam locomotive for passenger train work. The nickname for this class, almost universally used at the time these engines were in service was Dukedog since the locomotives were composed of former

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are rank ...

Class boilers on

Bulldog The Bulldog is a British breed of dog of mastiff type. It may also be known as the English Bulldog or British Bulldog. It is of medium size, a muscular, hefty dog with a wrinkled face and a distinctive pushed-in nose.frames. As such they were one of the last standard gauge steam locomotive classes to retain ''outside frames''.

Background

The GWR absorbed the Cambrian Railways in 1923, but, with the Cambrian main line being lightly built, permanent way restrictions debarred the use of heavier locomotives. This meant that only a few classes of GWR locomotive were allowed to run over it, including the Duke Class. However, by the 1930s the Duke class engines were past their estimated life, and in particular the frames were in poor condition. At the same time the heavier Bulldog Class was becoming redundant and being withdrawn, and later members of this class had an improved straight topped frame design.

Construction

In December 1929, Duke No.3265 ''Tre Pol and Pen'' was withdrawn, and the cab and other above-frame fittings together with a spare Duke boiler and smokebox, were fitted to the straight-topped frames of Bulldog no. 3365 ''Charles Grey Mott''. The rebuilt locomotive was given the name and number of the Duke. This resulted in an engine with stronger frames which could still be used on yellow weight restricted routes. The conversion was a success and from 1936 twenty-nine "new" locomotives were constructed from the relevant components of withdrawn Dukes and Bulldogs. The classification of the rebuilds as "new" locomotives had advantages in the railway's accounts, and they were given new numbers in the 32xx series (3200–3228). A further eleven conversions were scheduled, but the onset of

World War II 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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

brought a halt to the program.

Naming

The prototype conversion retained its Duke number and name (3265 ''Tre Pol and Pen''). The first nominally new locomotive was numbered 3201, and originally kept the name of the parent Duke. A decision was then taken to name the class after living Earls who had some connection with the GWR. Apparently, as a riposte to repeated requests from aristocratic GWR directors for engines to be named after them, the CME of Great Western,

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 ...

decided that these "new" engines, with their decidedly old-fashioned Victorian appearance, should be given the names of those directors. When the directors assembled at Paddington Station for the unveiling of the "new" class, the group were not impressed at Collett's joke. So, although the first batch of twenty were allocated Earl names, following the construction and naming of no. 3212 ''Earl of Eldon'' in May 1937, the nameplates were removed and the names given to nos. 5043–5062 of the express Castle class instead.

Renumbering

In the 1946 renumbering all the surviving locomotives in the 32xx series, both

s and Dukedogs, were renumbered in the 90xx series, retaining the same last two digits. This was to free the 32xx numbers for new 2251 Class engines.

Operations

Dukedog 4-4-0 at Swindon, 1946 (geograph 4558155)

Mainly allocated to the Cambrian main line, it remained one of the few classes of locomotive that British Rail inherited that were light enough to be permitted on the wooden

Barmouth Bridge Barmouth Bridge ( Welsh: ''Pont Abermaw''), or Barmouth Viaduct is a Grade II* listed single-track wooden railway viaduct across the estuary of the Afon Mawddach near Barmouth, Wales. It is long and carries the Cambrian Line. It is the longes ...

(others were the

GWR 2251 Class The Great Western Railway (GWR) 2251 Class or Collett Goods Class was a class of 0-6-0 steam tender locomotives designed for medium-powered freight. They were introduced in 1930 as a replacement for the earlier Dean Goods 0-6-0s and were bu ...

and the LMS Ivatt Class 2 2-6-0). As a result, they remained in regular use until the 1950s.

Preservation: 9017 ''Earl of Berkeley''

One locomotive, 9017 ''Earl of Berkeley'' survives in preservation at the

Bluebell Railway The Bluebell Railway is an heritage line almost entirely in West Sussex in England, except for Sheffield Park which is in East Sussex. It is managed by the Bluebell Railway Preservation Society. It uses steam trains which operate between an ...

. The locomotive was built at

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 1938, using frames from "Bulldog" No. 3425 (built 1906), and boiler and cab from "Duke" class No. 3282 (originally named "Chepstow Castle", built in 1895). Originally numbered 3217, it was renumbered post-WW2 as 9017. Mainly deployed on the Cambrian Line, the locomotive was withdrawn from service at Oswestry in October 1960. Preserved privately directly from British Railways, with the Bluebell Line as the then only preserved standard-gauge line in the whole of the UK, it arrived there 15 February 1962. From September 1963 it carried the name plates from

GWR 4073 Class The 4073 or Castle Class are 4-6-0 steam locomotives of the Great Western Railway, built between 1923 and 1950. They were designed by the railway's Chief Mechanical Engineer, Charles Collett, for working the company's express passenger trains. ...

No. 5060. It carried its post-WW2 9017 plates until the BR withdrawal of GWR 0-6-0 No.3217, when it was reunited with its original number plates in early 1965. After a period out of traffic from December 1973, its overhaul began in 1980, returning to traffic in 1982. After its last overhaul completed in November 2003, its private owner donated it to the Bluebell Railway, on condition that it remained mainly in service on the line. After a series of boiler and mechanical failures in June 2011, it is currently awaiting overhaul and is in storage at Horsted Keynes Carriage and Wagon Workshop.

Numbering

NB: In the table below, names in parentheses were allocated but never actually carried in GWR/BR service.

References

Bibliography

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External links

Great Western Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gwr 3200 Class 3200 4-4-0 locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1936 Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Rebuilt locomotives Passenger locomotives