GWR 3205 at Rocket 150

Resource Type: Image | Posted on 16th December 2011 by Liam Physick

Here we see Great Western Railway No. 3205 at the Grand Cavalcade. It is a 0-6-0 tender locomotive belonging to the 2251 Class. This class, designed to pull medium goods trains serving light-laid lines in Wales, but also used for short-haul main-line services and branch-line passenger traffic, was designed by Charles Collett and built between 1930 and 1948: there were 120 of them, numbered 2251-2299, 2200-2250 and 3200-3219. They were withdrawn between 1958 and 1965: No. 3205, built at Swindon in October 1946 and withdrawn in 1965, was the only one to be preserved. It was bought by the 2251 Preservation Fund (which still owns it) and after being restored at Buckfastleigh it arrived on the Severn Valley Railway in 1967, hauling the first train after the reopening of that line in 1970. Several years later, it moved to the West Somerset Railway, and since 1998 has been based on the South Devon Railway. It returned to service after a four-year overhaul in May 2010, at the SDR’s Spring Bank Holiday gala

Tagged under: steam locomotives, tender locomotives, rocket 150, goods, passengers, freight, grand cavalcade, heritage railways, great western railway, rainhill trials photo album

Categorised under: Landmarks, Landscapes & Locomotives