Present Your Case

If there’s a locomotive that you think needs to be offered ready-to-run, here’s the place to voice your opinion…

Locomotive: GWR ‘26XX’ ‘Aberdare’ 2‑6‑0 steam locomotive Gauge: ‘OO’ Proposed by: James Whitehead, The EBOR Group of Railway Modellers, York

What is it?

When the Great Western Railway needed a powerful locomotive to haul coal traffic out of Wales, in the early part of the 20th Century, William Dean and his design team opted for a tender locomotive with a 2-6-0 ‘Mogul’ wheel arrangement. This followed the earlier, rather ugly looking ‘Kruger’ 4-6-0 locomotives, which employed a parallel boiler and a four-wheeled pony truck. The development of these locomotives eventually led to the ‘Aberdare’ class, with the removal of the pony truck in favour of a single leading axle.

In common with many of William Dean’s contemporary locomotives, the ‘Aberdare’ class featured double frames, which produced the fascinating sight of driving wheel springs sitting above the running plate and large cranks linking the coupling rods to the driving wheels. Later engines employed the ‘top tapered’ pattern of boiler and the usual GWR fittings. The locomotives were equipped with vacuum brakes and coupled with 4,000gallon tenders. A total of 80 ‘Aberdare’ locomotives were built, with four examples lasting long enough to gain British Railways numbers.

Incidentally, the nickname came from the fact that they were used extensively to haul mineral trains originating from the South Wales Valleys to Swindon and London. At the height of its industrial boom, Aberdare – close to Merthyr Tydfil – had become a thriving cultural centre. The class was also employed on other mixed freight trains on the GWR system in the same area of operation.

What would make it viable?

Bachmann has, in the past, produced excellent double-framed locomotives, namely the GWR ‘City’ and ‘Dukedog’ 4-4-0s. Both models have been available recently and I am sure, with this company’s expertise, they could easily produce what is a relatively modest locomotive. It would certainly lead to a model with bags of character. Anyone modelling the GWR scene from the early 20th Century to the latter part of the 1940s would, I am sure, love to own a model of this locomotive. It goes without saying that some people (perhaps even GWR enthusiasts) may find them hideous! However, I believe that they would sell just as well as Bachmann’s previous outside-framed 4-4-0s have.

Can I see a real one?

Sadly, no. The last ‘Aberdare’ was withdrawn in 1949.