The 3206 or Barnum Class consisted of 20 locomotives 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 1889, and was William Dean's most successful design. Numbered 3206–3225, they were the last GWR locos built at Swindon with "sandwich" frames (outside frames consisting of timber between two sheets of steel).

Alterations

They underwent various alterations during their working lives, such as thicker tyres giving slightly larger wheels, the gradual adoption of cylinders with a

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 ...

, and larger diameter boilers of various sorts, as was usual at this period. Between 1910 and 1915, some of the class received taller chimneys resembling those of the Dean Singles.

Use

The Barnums were "express mixed traffic engines" and to start with worked from Swindon to Gloucester and South Wales, and to Weymouth. A few subsequently went to the Northern Division, but in the early 20th century most were at Bristol, Oxford, Swindon and Westbury. By the 1920s they were reduced to branch-line work, apart from a brief spell on the Cambrian main line, and all were withdrawn by early 1937.

References

* * {{GWR Locomotives 3206 2-4-0 locomotives Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Railway locomotives introduced in 1889 Scrapped locomotives