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GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line

Birmingham Snow Hill Station: gwrbsh1755

GWR 38XX (County) class 4-4-0 No. 3804 ‘County Dublin’ stands before the down scissors cross-over switches at the end of platform No 5

Great Western Railway 38xx (County) class 4-4-0 No 3804 ‘County Dublin’ stands before the down scissors cross-over switches at the end of platform No 5 with a South Wales express in 1925. The coach stock is clerestory design. Built at Swindon Works in October 1906 No 3804 was part of lot 165. The County class designed as express locomotives by George Churchward, was influenced by American practice; with the outside cylinders and valve chest cast in two identical pieces and bolted together to form a rigid saddle under the smoke box. This arrangement eliminated the requirement for multiple steam tight joints and became the standard for all future classes having 18 inch x 30 inch cylinders and 10 inch pistons. The locomotives were fitted with a Standard No 4 boiler operating at 200 lb pressure to produce a tractive effort at 85% of 20,530 lb and this meant that these locomotives were classified in power group C. No 3804 had a 14 element, 84 tube superheater fitted in November 1909 to improve boiler efficiency. As built the maximum axle weight was 19 tons, 8 cwt, which limited the locomotive to main lines and a few branch lines (Route colour - Red). The locomotives were used for principle expresses, but as more powerful 4-6-0 locomotives became available these 4-4-0 locomotives were relegated to cross country routes and in particular the Birmingham to Bristol expresses where the Great Western Railway utilised running rights over the Midland Railway between Standish Junction and Yate.

The Midland Railway limited this line to 4-4-0 locomotives due to weight restrictions over the Stonehouse Viaduct. Only in 1927, was this restriction finally lifted following work by the Bridge Stress Committee. It is worth noting that the County Class locomotives had a reputation of rough riding and this was found to be due to the hammer blow, caused by the amount of counterbalance to the reciprocating parts of the motion and the short rigid wheelbase. This dynamic hammer blow and not a locomotive’s static weight was found to be more damaging to the permanent way. The calculations indicated that the combined axle load (including hammer blow) of a typical County class 4-4-0 locomotive was almost 30% more than that of the prohibited Star class 4-6-0 locomotive, despite this later having both a heavier axle weight and total weight. The Great Western Railway tried several experiments to improve the ridding and in June 1924 No 3804 was given the eight wheel bogie tender from the scrapped 4-6-2 locomotive ‘Great Bear’. This tender was subsequently tried with other members of the class. No 3804 was originally allocated to Banbury shed (BAN) in October 1906, but it was known to have been allocated to Worcester shed (WOS) in January 1921 and was finally withdrawn from Oxford shed (OXF) in March 1931.

Robert Ferris

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