GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Bentley Heath Crossing: gwrbh1621

Great Western Railway 38xx or ‘County’ class 4-4-0 No 3814 ‘County of Chester’ at Bentley Heath with the 12:07pm Snow Hill to Paddington (via Oxford and Reading) express on Monday 26th June 1911. No 3814 was built at Swindon Works in November 1906 as part of lot 165. Originally this locomotive carried the name ‘County of Cheshire’, but this was changed in May 1907. At the same time the original cast iron chimney was replaced with the more attractive and larger copper capped pattern. These locomotives were designed by George Churchward and contained a lot of American influence especially with regard to the cylinder construction. They were fitted with his Standard No 4 boiler operating at 200lb, which was a 11 foot long coned domeless boiler with a belpaire firebox. The coupled driving wheels were 6 foot 8.5 inch driven by standard 18 inch diameter outside cylinders which had a 30 inch stroke and 10 inch valves. These produced a powerful locomotive which was classified as Group C, but the 18 ton 3 cwt axle weight restricted these locomotives to Red routes. Between 1909 and 1912 these locomotives had the boiler steam temperature increased through superheating, which also removed condensation from the cylinders and made the boiler more efficient. No 3814 received a 14 tube / 84 element superheated boiler in February 1911.

These locomotives were built to handle the passenger expresses on the West – North route from Bristol through Hereford, which ran on lines jointly owned by the LNWR. This company were responsible for the track maintenance and refused to allow any locomotives larger than a 4-4-0 to operate on this line. The powerful ‘counties’ however, were notoriously rough riders and developed considerable hammer blow in the left hand trailing axleboxes, caused by the amount of counterbalance to the reciprocating parts of the motion and the short rigid wheelbase. Only after the Bridge Stress Committee report in the 1920s were these effects better understood and it recognised that the dynamic loading of some 4-6-0 locomotives was less than some 4-4-0 locomotives. Some companies like the LMS took until 1927 to lift the restrictions on their Stonehouse viaduct in Gloucestershire over which the Great Western Railway Birmingham to Bristol expresses had running powers. As a result the 'county' class locomotives were retained to operate on this line until the early 1930s and most were fitted with Automatic Train control (ATC).

No 3814 was known to have been allocated to Bristol Shed in January 1921 and to Wolverhampton Shed in May 1922. No 3814 was one of the last of the class to be withdrawn in June 1933 from Reading Shed. The coaching stock is a mixed bag, with the first pair and fourth carriage being clerestory carriages. The first coach has no destination headboard and is shorter, so may be an extra strengthening coach. The door and window layout on this coach points to it being a 46.5 foot long, unganged, six compartment, composite coach to diagram E26 built in 1889. These had a centrally positioned guard / luggage compartment, either side of which was one first class compartment and two third class compartments (there was no corridor and no lavatory). The second coach is a probably a 56 foot long brake composite coach. It has a short guard compartment with a lookout at the far end and six or seven compartments. The position of the compartment door so near the carriage end suggests this coach is also unganged with no corridor. Some of these short guard compartment coaches were later converted to slip coaches.

Robert Ferris

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