GWR 1854 Class


The GWR 1854 Class was a class of steam locomotives designed by William Dean and constructed at the Swindon Works of the Great Western Railway. The class used similar inside frames and chassis dimensions to the 1813 Class of 1882-4. In this they differed from the intervening 1661 Class, which had reverted to the double frames of the Armstrong era. Thus the 1854 Class belongs to the "mainstream" of GWR classes that leads towards the larger GWR pannier tanks of the 20th century.

Production

The 120 1854s were built in six batches between 1890 and 1895:
YearQuantityLot No.Works Nos.Locomotive numbersNotes
189020791159–11781854–1873
1890–9120831201–12201874–1893
189120851241–12601701–1720
189220881301–13201721–1740
1892–9320891321–13401751–1770
189520981433–1452905–907, 1791–1800, 1894–1900

Rebuilding

The engines were rebuilt during their careers with various forms of boiler and saddle tanks, and they were also rebuilt as pannier tanks between 1909 and 1932 with Belpaire fireboxes fitted. Most of the class worked in the GWR's Southern Division, the majority of them in South Wales. Two examples were to be found in the GWR London Division at time of nationalisation. Numbers 907 and 1861 were allocated to 81E in August 1950.
All achieved in service, and 23 of the class passed into British Railways stock in 1948, the last of them being withdrawn in 1951. The well-known 5700 class was in many ways a development of the 1854 class, retaining the latter's 'four down, two up' layout of springing, longer smokebox and forward-mounted chimney. The cylinder and wheels diameters of the later 2721 class were adopted and the leading frame overhang was extended from to ; the frames were strengthened and the injectors, valances, and wheel centres redesigned.

Accidents and incidents