The Taff Vale Railway O4 class was a class of

0-6-2T T, or t, is the twentieth Letter (alphabet), letter in the English language, modern English English alphabet, alphabet and the ISO basic Latin alphabet. Its name in English is English alphabet#Letter names, ''tee'' (pronounced ), plural ''te ...

steam

tank locomotive 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 locom ...

s designed by

Tom Hurry Riches Tom Hurry Riches (1846–1911) was a British engineer who became the Locomotive Superintendent of the Taff Vale Railway in October 1873, and held the post until his death. At the time of his appointment, he was the youngest locomotive superinte ...

and introduced to the

Taff Vale Railway The Taff Vale Railway (TVR) was a standard gauge railway in South Wales, built by the Taff Vale Railway Company to serve the iron and coal industries around Merthyr Tydfil and to connect them with docks in Cardiff. It was opened in stag ...

in 1907. They were rebuilt with

taper boiler A fire-tube boiler is a type of boiler in which hot gases pass from a fire through one or more tubes running through a sealed container of water. The heat of the gases is transferred through the walls of the tubes by thermal conduction, heating t ...

s and

superheater A superheater is a device used to convert saturated steam or wet steam into superheated steam or dry steam. Superheated steam is used in steam turbines for electricity generation, steam engines, and in processes such as steam reforming. There ar ...

s by 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) from 1924. The first loco withdrawn was 402 in April 1948 from

Treherbert Treherbert () is a village and community situated at the head of the Rhondda Fawr valley in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. Historically part of Glamorgan, Treherbert is a former industrial coal mining village which was at its eco ...

shed. The last three locos, 290, 317 and 321 were withdrawn together from

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

East Dock shed in July 1955. None were preserved.

Builders and numbering

The locomotives were built in several batches by

Vulcan Foundry The Vulcan Foundry Limited was an English locomotive builder sited at Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire (now Merseyside). History The Vulcan Foundry opened in 1832, as Charles Tayleur and Company to produce girders for bridges, switches, crossi ...

Manning Wardle Manning Wardle was a steam locomotive manufacturer based in Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Precursor companies The city of Leeds was one of the earliest centres of locomotive building; Matthew Murray built the first commercially s ...

and

Beyer, Peacock and Company Beyer, Peacock and Company was an English railway locomotive manufacturer with a factory in Openshaw, Manchester. Founded by Charles Beyer, Richard Peacock and Henry Robertson, it traded from 1854 until 1966. The company exported locomotives, ...

. Their GWR numbers were in the range 200-420 but they were not consecutive and were intermingled with other classes.

External links

Rail UK database entry for Taff Vale Railway O4 class
O4 0-6-2T locomotives Beyer, Peacock locomotives Manning Wardle locomotives Vulcan Foundry locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1907 Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Scrapped locomotives {{UK-steam-loco-stub

Builders and numbering

See also

External links