The Great Western Railway 3800 Class, also known as the County Class, were a class of 4-4-0 steam locomotives for express passenger train work introduced in 1904 in a batch of ten. Two more batches followed in 1906 and 1912 with minor differences. They were designed by George Jackson Churchward, who used standard components to produce a four-coupled version of his Saint Class 4-6-0s.
Construction
The first locomotive, No. 3473 County of Middlesex, was built at Swindon Works in May 1904, with the following nine completed by October 1904. They were initially fitted with parallel-sided copper-capped chimneys, which were soon replaced by tapered cast iron chimneys. The second batch, of twenty, were built between October and December 1906. This batch had tapered cast iron chimneys from the start. A third and last batch of ten were built between December 1911 and February 1912. On these the footplates had curved drop ends at the cab and front bufferbeam. They were also fitted from new with a superheater and top feed. The cylinder block, including the piston valves and smokebox saddle, was constructed from two castings from the same pattern, bolted back to back, each casting containing one half of the saddle.
This class were subject to the 1912 renumbering of GWR 4-4-0 locomotives, which saw the Bulldog class gathered together in the series 3300–3455, and other types renumbered out of that series. The County Class took numbers 3800–3839.
3833 County of Dorset was the first to be withdrawn, in February 1930. By the end of 1933 all had gone, the last survivor being No. 3834 County of Somerset, withdrawn in November of that year.
thumb|County Tank 2221
They were also the basis for the 'County Tank' GWR 2221 Class design, a 4-4-2T using the same basic design as the County but with a smaller and lighter boiler, and the replacement of the tender by the addition of side tanks, bunker and trailing axle.
{| class="wikitable"
!colspan=2 align=center|Numbers
!rowspan=2 align=center|Name
|-
!width="90" align=center|First
!width="90" align=center|Second (1912)
|-
|align=center|3473
|align=center|3800
|County of Middlesex
|-
|align=center|3801
|align=center|3801
|County Carlow
|-
|align=center|3802
|align=center|3802
|County Clare
|-
|align=center|3803
|align=center|3803
|County Cork
|-
|align=center|3804
|align=center|3804
|County Dublin
|-
|align=center|3805
|align=center|3805
|County Kerry
|-
|align=center|3806
|align=center|3806
|County Kildare
|-
|align=center|3807
|align=center|3807
|County Kilkenny
|-
|align=center|3808
|align=center|3808
|County Limerick
|-
|align=center|3809
|align=center|3809
|County Wexford
|-
|align=center|3810
|align=center|3810
|County Wicklow
|-
|align=center|3811
|align=center|3811
|County of Bucks
|-
|align=center|3812
|align=center|3812
|County of Cardigan
|-
|align=center|3813
|align=center|3813
|County of Carmarthen
|-
|align=center|3814
|align=center|3814
|County of Chester
|-
|align=center|3815
|align=center|3815
|County of Hants
|-
|align=center|3816
|align=center|3816
|County of Leicester
|-
|align=center|3817
|align=center|3817
|County of Monmouth
|-
|align=center|3818
|align=center|3818
|County of Radnor
|-
|align=center|3819
|align=center|3819
|County of Salop
|-
|align=center|3820
|align=center|3820
|County of Worcester
|-
|align=center|3821
|align=center|3821
|County of Bedford
|-
|align=center|3822
|align=center|3822
|County of Brecon
|-
|align=center|3823
|align=center|3823
|County of Carnarvon
|-
|align=center|3824
|align=center|3824
|County of Cornwall
|-
|align=center|3825
|align=center|3825
|County of Denbigh
|-
|align=center|3826
|align=center|3826
|County of Flint
|-
|align=center|3827
|align=center|3827
|County of Gloucester
|-
|align=center|3828
|align=center|3828
|County of Hereford
|-
|align=center|3829
|align=center|3829
|County of Merioneth
|-
|align=center|3830
|align=center|3830
|County of Oxford
|-
|align=center|3474
|align=center|3831
|County of Berks
|-
|align=center|3475
|align=center|3832
|County of Wilts
|-
|align=center|3476
|align=center|3833
|County of Dorset
|-
|align=center|3477
|align=center|3834
|County of Somerset
|-
|align=center|3478
|align=center|3835
|County of Devon
|-
|align=center|3479
|align=center|3836
|County of Warwick
|-
|align=center|3480
|align=center|3837
|County of Stafford
|-
|align=center|3481
|align=center|3838
|County of Glamorgan
|-
|align=center|3482
|align=center|3839
|County of Pembroke
|-
|}
New Build – 3840 County of Montgomery
No members of the class were preserved. However, the Great Western Society took the decision to create the next locomotive in the sequence, 3840 County of Montgomery. The project has been handed over to the Churchward County Trust and 3840 will be based at the Didcot Railway Centre following its construction at Tyseley Locomotive Works in Birmingham. The locomotive is being built with both new parts, such as the driving wheels which have been cast using the pattern created for Saint Class 2999 Lady of Legend, and recycled standard parts recovered from former Barry scrapyard locomotives including the Standard No. 4 Boiler, the pony truck wheel set, two pony truck axle boxes, four horn guides and two eccentric sheaves from 5205 Class 2-8-0T 5227, and four driving wheel axle boxes from 2800 Class 2-8-0 2861.
Models
Hornby Railways manufacture a model of the 38xx in OO gauge.
3mm Scale Model Railways manufacture a model kit of the 38xx in TT gauge.
Hornby manufactured between 1931-1936 electric and clockwork tin-plate models of the 3821 County of Bedford in 0 gauge.
See also
- List of GWR standard classes with two outside cylinders
References
Bibliography
External links
- 3800 'County' class
- Churchward County Trust official website