73 MEMORABLE MOMENTS
There’s bound to be something you didn’t know about the ‘Castles’ in this trainload of facts and figures compiled by HOWARD JOHNSTON.
British Railways may have had a grand total of 171 ‘Castle’ 4‑6‑0s on its books, but the variations among them were so great that it is unlikely any two were technically the same. The oldest, a rebuilt ‘Star’ that started its career as a Churchward ‘Atlantic’ 4‑4‑2 in 1906, was significantly different from the post‑war builds, many of which were refined with higher‑superheated boilers. Another was once the sole GWR ‘Pacific’, No. 111 The Great Bear. The definitive reference sources for GWR locomotive history are the records maintained by Bill Peto (now with the Great Western Society), and the Railway Correspondence & Travel Society, which published a 14‑volume series covering the GWR’s entire locomotive fleet from the company’s formation up to 1994. Other material is from personal observations.
The ‘Castle’ concept
1 The ‘Castle’ was noticeably more powerful than the ‘Star’, but would have been more so if it had been possible to use the No. 7 boiler, as fitted to the ‘47XX’ 2‑8‑0s. However, to keep within a 20‑ton axle limit, a new No. 8 boiler had to be devised which was 3in smaller overall, with a larger grate area supplying cylinders 1in greater in diameter. Its only use was with the ‘Castles’. 2 No. 4073 Caerphilly Castle was the first GWR volume production four‑cylinder design to feature large curved outside steam pipes. 3 The first batches of ‘Castles’ were equipped with standard 3,500‑gallon tenders, but these were found to be inadequate and were all replaced with revised 4,000‑gallon versions by 1930. Modern Hawksworth‑design flat‑ sided tenders were introduced from 1945, and they ended up widely distributed throughout the class. 4 For train crews, the ‘Castle’ was a welcome arrival because of its enlarged cab with a side window.
Formative years
5 At the time of its introduction, the ‘Castle’ was the UK’s most powerful passenger locomotive. 6 ‘Castle’ construction was in 12 production runs between August 1923 and August 1950, with constant improvements and modifications along the way, and even into the early 1960s. Boilers and tenders were interchanged between the locomotives. 7 ‘Castle’ No. 111 Viscount Churchill was created in 1924, and it incorporated parts recovered from the sole GWR ‘Pacific’ The Great Bear, which had been due a heavy overhaul.
8 Two of the class were displayed at the long-running 1924/25 British Empire Exhibition at Wembley. No. 4073 was there in October 1924, and No. 4079 Pendennis Castle the following year, positioned close to LNER ‘A1’ 4-6-2 No. 4472 Flying Scotsman. This latter pair have had several reunions since, notably at Market Overton in the early 1970s, and Perth, Australia, on September 17 1989. 9 No. 4000 North Star began life as a 4-4-2 ‘Atlantic’. It was converted into a ‘Star’ by Churchward in 1909, and then a ‘Castle’ in 1929. It was always recognisable by its slightly raised splashers, and was condemned in May 1957 with a mileage of over two million. 10 After a lull of five years, a new series of 30 ‘Castles’ began to appear in July 1932. Starting with No. 5013 Abergavenny Castle, a better Diagram HB boiler was fitted, using a slightly smaller firebox with reduced space between the inner and outer plates, and fewer small tubes. The fire irons were now carried in a casing on the left-hand footplate. 11 Converting 16 ‘Stars’ may have saved money, but it was not an outstanding long-term success because the extended frames were prone to cracking. Although some of the rebuilds retained their original numbers, those of Nos. 4063-72 were changed to 5083-92, presumably to preserve the identity of No. 4073 Caerphilly Castle as the first of the class. 12 In January 1936, rebuilt No. 4009 Shooting Star became simply No. A1 and was renamed Lloyd’s after the shipping register, ‘A1’ being the highest possible classification for a vessel’s condition. The locomotive was soon altered again with the addition of a ‘100’ plate on the cabside. The bufferbeam read ‘100 A1’, but in BR days the smokebox plate simply read ‘100’. 13 The beginning of the Second World War halted the construction of ‘Castles’ after No. 5097 Sarum Castle. The order was cut short with Nos. 5098/9 and 7000-2 postponed, as well as 25 more in two batches, Nos. 7003-7 and 7008-27.
14 The 40 new ‘Castles’ built after May 1946 - after the six-year wartime gap - were known as the ‘5098 Class’. The first of these was No. 5098 Clifford Castle, which featured a revised ‘HC’ boiler with a threerow superheater.
Landmarks
15 Protocol was briefly swept aside on April 28 1924 when the cab of the new No. 4082 Windsor Castle was clearly overcrowded on the short trip from Swindon Works to the station. Jammed onto the footplate with King George V were GWR Chairman Sir Felix Pole, CME Charles Collett, locomotive inspector G.H. Llewellyn, driver E.R.B. Rowe, and fireman A.W. Cook. No. 4082 hauled the monarch’s funeral train on January 28 1936. 16 GWR Chief Mechanical Engineer George Churchward was struck and killed by a Paddington-Fishguard express as he was crossing the line at Swindon on December 19 1933. The engine was No. 4085 Berkeley Castle. 17 But for an uncooperative GWR board, the LMS might have had a fleet of 50 ‘Castles’, perhaps modified for its tighter loading gauge. The loan of No. 5000 Launceston Castle in November 1926 for comparative trials between Euston and Glasgow exposed the weaknesses of its ex-LNWR express fleet. Swindon Works Manager Bill (later Sir William) Stanier was head-hunted to Crewe instead to become its new Chief Mechanical Engineer from January 1932. 18 No. 5001 Llandovery Castle was the guinea pig for the larger ‘King’ design and it ran briefly with 6ft 6in wheels (2½in less than the standard) to compare performance. This was engineered by using well-worn tyres. 19 No. 5033 Broughton Castle, completed in May 1935, was the first of the class to be fitted with a speedometer. 20 Five ‘Castles’ ran as oil burners between October 1946 and November 1948 - Nos. 100A1, 5039/79/83/91 - but unlike conventions established with other GWR classes, no attempt was made to renumber them Nos. 8000-4. (See also SR462). 21 After 1952, No. 7013 Bristol Castle was markedly different to the rest of the final series because it was actually the original No. 4082. The latter lost its former Windsor Castle royal identity (see above) because it was under repair and unable to haul King George VI’s funeral train from Paddington to Windsor on February 15. The names and numbers were never changed back.
Detail
22 Seven ‘Castles’ ran with Collett’s experimental eight-wheel 4,000-gallon tender No. 2587. Built at the end of 1931, it floated around the class and finished its life behind ‘Hall’ No. 5904 Kelham Hall, and after its withdrawal at the end of 1963 was sold for scrap to R.S. Hayes at Bridgend. 23 The shortest ‘Castle’ name was Lloyd’s (six characters), carried by No. 111. The longest was The Somerset Light Infantry (Prince Albert’s) on No. 4016 (40 characters). 24 ‘Abbey’ nameplates carried the words ‘Castle Class’ underneath, but not the ‘Earls’. 25 No. 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, originally Barbury Castle, was the first of 20 ‘Castles’ to acquire names previously carried by older ‘32XX’ 4-4-0s. New in March 1936, it acquired an ‘HC’ boiler and double chimney at Swindon in October 1956. 26 The name Ogmore Castle was originally earmarked for No. 5006, but was carried in turn by Nos. 5056, 5080, 7007 and finally 7035. It has never been refitted to No. 5080 in preservation. The Denbigh Castle plates also had four owners - Nos. 5049, 5074, 7001 and 7032. 27 One of the last of the many renamings took place in April 1954 when No. 5017 St Donats Castle became The Gloucestershire Regiment 28th 61st in April 1954 to commemorate the soldiers’ role in the Korean War. The last change took place in April 1956 when No. 5066 Wardour Castle became Sir Felix Pole, after the GWR’s general manager from 1921-29. 28 As a blackout precaution, ‘Castle’ cabside windows were first painted black during 1940, and then had their glass replaced by solid steel plate. This was reversed between 1945-47.
29 No. 4082 Windsor Castle visited the North East in June 1925 to take part in the Stockton & Darlington Railway centenary celebrations. 30 No. 4089 Donnington Castle ran in the early 1930s in a lighter shade of green livery. 31 BR briefly experimented with fresh liveries in its early days, and eight ‘Castles’ appeared in LNER-style apple green, including new Nos. 7010-3. No. 4091 Dudley Castle was another. 32 No. 5036 Lyonshall Castle is the express engine seen at the fictional ‘Mallingford’ station (in reality Bristol Temple Meads) in the 1953 Ealing comedy The Titfield Thunderbolt. 33 No. 5063 was the original Thornbury Castle, but it was changed to Earl Baldwin in 1937 to honour retiring Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin. 34 In 1949, No. 5074 Hampden was paired up with a 4,000-gallon tender with an aluminium body, which saved three tons in weight. 35 No. 7009 Athelney Castle was the first of the class to be fitted with a BR smokebox numberplate when it was new in July 1948. No. 7017 G.J. Churchward (and a few others) were extravagantly fitted with brass smokebox plates when new. (Do any survive?) 36 Churchward 2-8-0T No. 5227, a Barry scrapyard engine dismantled at Didcot for spares for other GWR rebuilds, was under construction at Swindon Works in 1924 at the same time as No. 4073 Caerphilly Castle.
In GWR service
37 Although the later, more powerful ‘King’ 4-6-0s cut journey times on main line expresses to the West Country and Birmingham and Wolverhampton, their much heavier axle loading reduced their versatility. The ‘Castles’ were always regarded as more useful and often stood in. 38 One of Collett’s most satisfying moments must have been the outcome of the trials of No. 4079 Pendennis Castle between London, Grantham and Doncaster against LNER ‘Pacifics’ Nos. 2545 Diamond Jubilee and 4475 Flying Fox between April 29 and May 4 1925. No. 4474 Victor Wild, meanwhile, competed with No. 4074 Caldicot Castle on the ‘Cornish Riviera Express’, and lost out again, the GWR engines accelerating better and using less coal. 39 No. 5005 Manorbier Castle was partstreamlined in March 1935, clumsily foreshadowing the initiatives of the LNER and LMS. The bulbous nose, cylinder fairing and sloped sheeting behind the chimney were quickly removed, not least because the cylinders overheated, and only the nonoperational wedge-fronted cab survived another couple of works overhauls. The unique straight nameplates were also replaced by normal curved ones. 40 No. 5006 Tregenna Castle achieved a world record on June 6 1932 when it covered the 77.25 miles with the ‘Cheltenham Flyer’ from Swindon to Paddington in 56min 47sec, an average of 81.68mph, and seven minutes ahead of schedule. For a time, the Swindon-Paddington schedule gave the ‘Cheltenham Flyer’ the claim to be the world’s fastest train. The tender paired with Tregenna Castle on the record run survives at the Northampton & Lamport Railway with ‘2884’ 2-8-0 No. 3862.
BR days
41 Although the ‘Castle’ class comprised 171 engines, only 170 were in service at the same time. One of the early ‘Star’ conversions, No. 100 A1 Lloyd’s, was withdrawn in March 1950, before the completion of the 7028-37 series. 42 A total of 250 ‘Castle’ boilers were constructed, the last in 1960. They were of four types; 60 of the original ‘HA’ (1923-27), 90 of the ‘HB’ (1932-40), 54 of the ‘HC’ (1946-50), and 46 of the ‘HD’ (1946-60). 43 The initial BR power classification for the ‘Castle’ was ‘6P’, but this was uprated to ‘7P’ from the beginning of 1951. 44 No. 7018 Drysllwyn Castle was the first to be fitted with a double chimney in May 1956, but not with the latest boiler. The second member of the class to be upgraded, No. 4090 Dorchester Castle, received the final combination of the double chimney and four-row superheat boiler a few months later. 45 No. 7008 Swansea Castle, the first of the class to be completed under BR auspices in May 1948, was equipped from new with a Hawksworth 4,000-gallon straight-sided tender (and others followed). It only stayed with the engine for six years.
Final years
46 No. 4073 was scheduled for withdrawal in 1955, but was awarded another overhaul at Swindon instead during the following year. It was finally laid aside at Cardiff Canton in May 1960, and restored for display at London’s Science Museum, where it arrived in June 1961. (See page 68). 47 The ‘Castles’ were intended to have a working life of around 30 years, but for some of them, rapid dieselisation after 1958 put paid to this plan. 48 The first real ‘Castle’ to be taken out of service was No. 4091 Dudley Castle from Old Oak Common shed in January 1959. A contributory factor may have been its front-end collision with Stanier ‘8F’ No. 8293 near Slough on July 2 1941, resulting in the deaths of five passengers, on the 6.20pm Plymouth-Paddington. The 2-8-0 also needed heavy repairs, and missed its call-up for export to mainland Europe, surviving until the end of BR steam. 49 No. 4037 South Wales Borderers (rebuilt from ‘Star’ Queen Philippa) is credited with the highest mileage of any GWR engine - 2,429,722, over a total of 51 years and eight months. Its reward after withdrawal in September 1962, as the final former ‘Star’, was its sale to Cashmore’s scrapyard at Newport. It finally ran with a tender of the most modern flat-sided Hawksworth type. 50 The longest-lived production ‘Castle’ was No. 4074 Caldicot Castle with 39 years five months and over 1.8 million miles to its credit before withdrawal in October 1963. Despite its age, it had received a modern boiler and double chimney in April 1959. 51 It was inappropriate that No. 7017, named after GWR designer G.J. Churchward in October 1948, should meet its end on Eastern turf. Following withdrawal after 14 years of service, it was sold to Archie King at Norwich to be broken up. 52 The lowest mileage of any ‘Castle’ was 580,346 by No. 7035 Ogmore Castle during its 14-year life. 53 The highest mileage by any true ‘Castle’ was the 1,974,461 recorded by No. 4080 Powderham Castle between August 1925 and August 1964. 54 The final regular timetabled ‘Castle’hauled service from Paddington took place on April 13 1965. A decrepit and nameless No. 7022 Hereford Castle hauled the 4.15pm stopping train to Banbury and Bicester. The official last run, however, was with bulled-up No. 7029 Clun Castle, which did the same journey on June 11. 55 Clun Castle became BR’s sole ‘Castle’ after the withdrawal of Nos. 5042 Winchester Castle and 7022 Hereford Castle at Gloucester in June 1965. Both were sold for scrap to Hayes at Bridgend in the October. 56 No. 7029 brought the curtain down on BR ‘Castle’ operation on November 27 1965 when it hauled the commemorative run from Paddington. 57 No. 7029’s final duty was the 5.00pm Gloucester-Cheltenham on January 1 1966, and it was soon earmarked for preservation by Patrick Whitehouse and moved to Tyseley in March; it was kept active on local trip freight duty for several months. It returned to the main line with a trip to Didcot and back on June 11 1972. 58 No. 7037 Swindon, the final member of the class completed in August 1950, ran without a name for three months before being named by the then Princess Elizabeth to mark Swindon Borough’s Jubilee. The engine was laid aside for over two years after withdrawal from Old Oak Common in March 1963, but preservation never materialised, and it still went for scrap. 59 Only 19 ‘Castle’ withdrawals had taken place before 1963, the worst year, when 55 were taken off the books. There were 49 still in service at the end of 1963, but only 12 at the end of 1964.
Preservation
60 No. 7007 Great Western was the final GWR express passenger steam locomotive completed at Swindon prior to nationalisation, in July 1946. It only ran for 16 years. 61 The preservation of No. 4079 Pendennis Castle is owed to its performance in 1964, when it was one of four ‘Castles’ to take part in the May 9 celebration farewell run from Paddington to Plymouth. It reached 96mph near Lavington, but failed when its firebars melted. Roundhouse Bookshop owner Mike Higson was at hand to organise its rescue. 62 Pendennis Castle carries the boiler made new for No. 5086 Viscount Horne when it was altered from ‘Star’ No. 4066 Malvern Abbey/Sir Robert Horne in 1937. 63 No. 4079 is by far the furthest travelled ‘Castle’, and the only one to go overseas. It was sold by Sir William
McAlpine to Hamersley Iron after working a ‘Great Western Envoy’ return trip from Birmingham to Didcot on May 29 1977, then moved to Hamersley’s 240-mile ore railway in the Pilbara area of Western Australia. While Down Under, No. 4079 was given a second name - River Fe (River of Iron) by its new owners in October 1978, and hauled trains for 16 years until its boiler certificate expired. 64 Before No. 4079 arrived home at Didcot in 2000, few had realised the extent of work needed, as it hadn’t had a ‘Heavy General’ overhaul since summer 1958. When it eventually returns to the main line, it may run with sister No. 5051’s chimney to keep within Network Rail’s 13ft 1in restriction. 65 No. 5051 Drysllwyn Castle spent its first 34 years based in South Wales, the first 27 at Landore, Neath and Llanelli depots, and the last seven languishing in Barry scrapyard. It was the fourth engine to be rescued, and it was in fit condition to be towed to Didcot in February 1970. 66 No. 5051 briefly changed its identity to sister No. 5086 Viscount Horne at Didcot in May 1989, but still carried its original number on the bufferbeam. It is the only privately preserved ‘Castle’ without a firm plan for a return to steam. 67 Preserved No. 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe started life as Barbury Castle in March 1936, and acquired its present name from ‘Dukedog’ No. 9000 in September 1937. 68 It took 12 years to restore No. 5043 to working order. It moved under its own steam for the first time on October 3 2008, and its tender has a replacement Hawksworth-design body. It has been based at Tyseley since coming out of Barry in September 1973. 69 No. 5080 Defiant was one of 20 ‘Castles’ renamed during the Second World War to commemorate Battle of Britain fighter aircraft (Defiants were the least successful). No. 5080 left Barry by rail on August 9 1974, and spent a year in store at Gloucester before moving to Tyseley on May 24 1975. 70 No. 5080 ran as City of Birmingham (on one side only) from Tyseley to Birmingham Snow Hill on January 14 1989 with a nameplate borrowed from 4-4-0 No. 3711. 71 The final ‘Castle’ to leave Barry scrapyard was No. 5029 Nunney Castle, taken to Didcot in May 1976 after a stay of 12 years. It is one of many of the class to have hauled a Royal Train, in particular to convey The Queen from Newbury to Shrewsbury in September 1957. It is currently under overhaul at Crewe. 72 BR-built No. 7027 Thornbury Castle was the 23rd engine rescued from Barry in August 1972, and is now the earliest departure not to have been returned to steam. New in August 1949, it has spent almost 80% of its life out of use. 73 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe has made a celebrity name for itself on the main line since its 2008 restoration. On April 17 2010 No. 5043 ran non-stop between Bristol Temple Meads and Paddington in 1 hour 49 minutes at an average speed of 72.8mph. On May 10 2014 it beat the best steam run between Plymouth and Bristol by more than three minutes, covering the 127.6 miles in 2 hours, 10 minutes and 4 seconds.