The Gorgon class were six broad gauge locomotives operated on the South Devon Railway,

Cornwall Railway The Cornwall Railway was a broad gauge railway from Plymouth in Devon to Falmouth in Cornwall, England, built in the second half of the nineteenth century. It was constantly beset with shortage of capital for the construction, and was eventu ...

and

West Cornwall Railway The West Cornwall Railway was a railway company in Cornwall, Great Britain, formed in 1846 to construct a railway between Penzance and Truro. It purchased the existing Hayle Railway, and improved its main line, and built new sections between Penz ...

. They were designed for passenger trains on this steep and sharply curved line but were also used on goods trains when required. They were ordered by the South Devon Railway which was contracted to operate the locomotives for both the railways. They were designed by

Daniel Gooch Sir Daniel Gooch, 1st Baronet (24 August 1816 – 15 October 1889) was an English railway locomotive and transatlantic cable engineer. He was the first Locomotive Superintendent, Superintendent of Locomotive Engines on the Great Western Rai ...

a development of his earlier Comet class, and built by the

Avonside Engine Company The Avonside Engine Company was a locomotive manufacturer in Avon Street, St. Philip's, Bristol, England between 1864 and 1934. However the business originated with an earlier enterprise Henry Stothert and Company. Origins The firm was original ...

. The locomotives of the three railways were operated as a combined fleet by the South Devon Railway but each was accounted to the railway that ordered it. On 1 February 1876, the South Devon Railway was amalgamated with the Great Western Railway, the locomotives were given numbers by their new owners but continued to carry their names too.

Locomotives

South Devon Railway

* ''Gorgon'' (1866 – 1892) GWR no. 2122 :On a foggy Christmas Day in 1883, ''Gorgon'' was put on the front of a train at

Newton Abbot railway station Newton Abbot railway station serves the town of Newton Abbot in Devon, England. It is from London, measured from the zero point at to the junction for the branch to . The station today is managed by Great Western Railway, who provide train s ...

to assist it over the heavy gradients to the west. After leaving the station the driver realised that he did not have the train behind him. The driver slowed down, only for the remainder of the train to emerge from the fog and collide with his locomotive. ''Gorgon'' was named after a Greek mythological monster, the

Gorgon A Gorgon ( /ˈɡɔːrɡən/; plural: Gorgons, Ancient Greek: Γοργών/Γοργώ ''Gorgṓn/Gorgṓ'') is a creature in Greek mythology. Gorgons occur in the earliest examples of Greek literature. While descriptions of Gorgons vary, the te ...

. * ''Sedley'' (1866 – 1885) GWR no. 2124 :''Sedley'' was the first broad gauge locomotive to take a passenger train through to Penzance when the West Cornwall Railway was converted to

mixed gauge In railway engineering, "gauge" is the transverse distance between the inner surfaces of the heads of two rails, which for the vast majority of railway lines is the number of rails in place. However, it is sometimes necessary for track to c ...

. The derivation of this name is uncertain. * ''Sol'' (1866 – 1892) GWR no. 2125 :The word Sol is the

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

in Latin.

West Cornwall Railway

* ''Pluto'' (1866 – 1892) GWR no. 2123 :''Pluto'' is believed to have been one of the two locomotives on the last passenger train from Penzance on 20 May 1892 before the broad gauge was abandoned. Named after a Roman mythological character,

Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Sun. It is the largest ...

. * ''Titan'' (1866 – 1886) GWR no. 2126 :A titan is a powerful Greek god. * ''Zebra'' (1866 – 1892) GWR no. 2127 :This locomotive was named after a fast animal,

zebra Zebras (, ) (subgenus ''Hippotigris'') are African equines with distinctive black-and-white striped coats. There are three living species: the Grévy's zebra (''Equus grevyi''), plains zebra (''E. quagga''), and the mountain zebra (''E. zebr ...

References

* * * * * Railway company records at

The National Archives National archives are central archives maintained by countries. This article contains a list of national archives. Among its more important tasks are to ensure the accessibility and preservation of the information produced by governments, both ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:South Devon Railway Gorgon Class Broad gauge (7 feet) railway locomotives 4-4-0ST locomotives

Avonside locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1866 Scrapped locomotives