GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Bentley Heath Crossing: gwrbh1614

Great Western Railway 40xx or ‘Star’ class 4-6-0 No 4023 ‘King George’ with a class A headcode on the 2:45 p.m. Snow Hill to Paddington express on 19th April 1912. The express is made up of nine coaches, which all appear to be ganged, corridor, eight wheel bogie, clerestory carriages. The first coach is a brake third with a guard's lookout and four third class compartments. No 4023 was built at Swindon Works as part of Lot 178 in June 1909 and was initially allocated to Old Oak Common shed (PDN) near to the Great Western Railway's London terminus at Paddington. From here it hauled crack express trains to the West Country and other primary routes. The 40xx class was the culmination of express passenger locomotive development by the Great Western Railway's Chief Mechanical Engineer - George Churchward. It incorporated the best of French and American design practice with a four cylinder simple arrangement with long valve travel. This combined with his 225 psi Standard No 1 boiler produced a superb free-running locomotive ideal for non-stop express running. The 40xx class had a D Power rating and their axle weight restricted them to Red routes (and dotted Red at a reduced speed of 20 m.p.h.).

Over the years boiler technology developed and as a steam locomotive's boiler needed to be regularly replaced, new developments could be incorporated in the replacement boilers. No 4023 was originally built with a Churchward standard No 1 parallel domeless boiler with a belpaire firebox (type D0). To make the boiler more efficient by increasing the steam temperature, which removed condensation from the cylinders, superheating was incorporated into the boiler fitted in September 1912. In August 1915, a short coned boiler design (type D2) was fitted (This half tapered boiler gave improved water circulation in the hottest region of the boiler). No 4023 received a further boiler refinement in June 1920, when a fully coned boiler (type D4) was fitted. In January 1921 No 4023 was still allocated to Old Oak Common shed (PDN), but following the introduction of the more powerful ‘Castle’ class locomotives, the 40xx class were gradually redeployed on to secondary express routes. When the ‘King’ class locomotives were introduced, No 4023 was renamed ‘The Danish Monarch’ (July 1927). In January 1934 No 4023 was known to have been allocated to Bath Road shed (BRD) in Bristol and in January 1938, was known to have been allocated to Landore shed (LDR) north of Swansea. No 4023 was also allocated there prior to nationalisation, in December 1947 and was withdrawn from the same shed in July 1952.

Robert Ferris

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