GWR 5600 CLASS- 0-6-2T 5643

(Photo: Dave Ballard)

History

History of GWR 5600 Class 0-6-2T 5643 and 6619-by Steve Allen.

The origins of the Great Western Railway’s (GWR) 5600 class go back to before the grouping of the railways at the beginning of 1923. Whilst the GWR in England was largely unaffected by this process, in Wales it absorbed a large number of small, independent, railway companies that served the south Wales ports and coal mining valleys. As well as providing local passenger services, these lines’ ‘bread and butter’ was to move the mountains of ‘Black Gold’ (Welsh Steam Coal) from the pit heads in the valleys to the docks for export all over the world, or onward to the rest of the UK. Unusually, most of these small companies had favoured the inside cylinder 0-6-2T wheel arrangement for their primary freight engines. At Grouping the GWR took over a mixed ragbag of run down, non-standard engines. Some of the better types were quickly ‘westernised’ with GWR boilers and cabs, making them look like Swindon products, but there was still a desperate need for a standard GWR class to take over the growing volume of traffic generated in the valleys.
In early 1924, using the traditional south Wales inside cylinder 0-6-2t concept (not used before or after on any other GWR class), the GWR’s chief mechanical engineer C B Collett designed a direct, more modern, replacement which became the 5600 class. Without the need for a prototype, the doyen of the class no. 5600, emerged from Swindon Works in 1924. It carried many standard fittings such as a Standard no. 2 boiler, 4 feet 7½ inch diameter driving wheels with 3 feet 8 inch trailing wheels. The engines were certainly not the most handsome to emerge from Swindon with a distinctive smokebox overhang that ended at the buffer beam and with the cylinders squeezed underneath. The resultant ‘hunched up’ appearance is possibly the origin of their nickname ‘Jumbos’. But, despite being quite small engines, they were powerful machines. They quickly proved themselves to be the master of the job they were designed for which resulted in many of the pre-grouping engines being scrapped.
Over the next four years, 200 were built in three batches, 5600 to 5699 and 6600 to 6649. The first two batches were produced at Swindon, but by the end of 1928 the works was too busy to fit in the remaining 50 so the building of the last batch, 6650 – 6699, was contracted out to Armstrong Whitworth at Scotswood-on-Tyne in Newcastle. These later 6600 examples had slight modifications from the 5600 types and came in at nearly a ton heavier.
Whilst primarily built to serve the south Wales coal fields, where most were based, some soon started to appear at other locations on the GWR system, particularly at Paddington for use on the heavy empty stock workings in and out of Paddington. However, it was in the valleys that they toiled their hardest working the empty coal trains up the valleys, smokebox first, and returning bunker first down the hills with the heavily loaded trains. With the rear pony wheels guiding the engine, they were reputed to give a better ride in reverse at the higher, downhill speeds.
All 200 made it through to BR ownership in 1948 and on into the 1960s. However, with the BR modernisation plan in full swing the first were withdrawn in December 1961 after a working life spanning nearly 40 years. Withdrawals continued steadily over the next four years with the last two, 5605 and 6697 at Croes Newydd, surviving into early 1966.
Had it not been for another South Wales phenomenon, Dai Woodham’s Barry scrapyard, the class would have been represented in preservation by just one example – the Great Western Society at Didcot purchased 6697 from BR in 1966. But, as fate would have it, 12 members of the class were delivered to Barry for scrapping. Four were broken up very soon after arrival but the other eight survived into preservation.
The NNR will be graced by not one but two members of the class during 2007 – nos. 5643 and 6619. The first to visit was 6619 which arrived at the end of April for use over two weekends whilst the n7 visited the North Yorkshire Moors Railway LNER-themed gala.
6619 was built at Swindon in January 1928 and after a short running in period at Cardiff Cathays was allocated to Barry depot where it spent most of its working life. This included passenger services to Treherbert, Neath, Merthyr and Cardiff, short distance freight work, and of course, the coal trains from the valleys. After 28 years at Barry, in August 1956, it was transferred to Treherbert. Ironically, in February 1963, while shunting scrap locomotives at Woodham’s yard near its old shed at Barry, it derailed, suffering minor front end damage. This no doubt led to its withdrawal the following month and its subsequent stay at the scrapyard! After 11 years at Woodham’s it was purchased for use on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. It was the 64th locomotive to have left the yard for preservation. It arrived at Pickering on 16 October 1974 and was returned to steam in October 1984 in early BR plain black livery. It then ran for ten years of reliable and economical service before being withdrawn for overhaul in 1994 and was returned to traffic in 2003. The engine’s visit to the NNR is believed to be only its second working visit away from the NYMR, its first being in 1985 to the ‘GWR 15’0 celebrations at Didcot.
The other 5600 example to visit the NNR is 5643 which is due to be with us from mid-August through to mid-September. It was completed at Swindon in October 1925 and was allocated for its first year to Cardiff Cathays depot before being moved to the former Taff Vale Railway Coke Ovens shed at Pontypridd. Like 6619 it hauled the heavy coal trains down to the docks at Cardiff and local passenger workings. Apart from a short spell at Cardiff East Dock in November 1931, it remained at Coke Ovens until the shed closed in December 1933. It was then transferred up the valley to Abercynon where, apart from short periods on loan to Rhymney and Treherbert, it stayed for 28 years. In June 1961 the locomotive moved down to Barry depot but its stay there was relatively short as it was withdrawn in July 1963. Its journey to Woodham’s scrapyard was a very short one, it being a stone’s throw from the engine’s depot. Thanks to Dai Woodham’s decision to set aside the steam locomotives whilst concentrating on the more lucrative business of scrapping wagons, 5643 and 212 other engines survive today in preservation. In September 1971 5643 departed Barry (only the 16th engine to do so) for the now defunct Eastern Valleys Railway preservation scheme at Cwmbran. However, it was soon on the move again, this time to Steamtown Railway Museum at Carnforth. In 1986 it was bought by members of the Lakeside Railway Society (LRS), and moved to Haverthwaite three years later. The LRS later set up the Furness Railway Trust as a charity to manage its assets, and so the engine passed into its ownership. After an 18-year restoration, 5643 steamed for the first in preservation in October 2005 – co-incidentally the engines 80th birthday. A further year was to pass before it, now in BR late 1950s lined out passenger green livery, hauled its first passenger train in September 2006, 43 years after withdrawal. Since then it has already visited the Llangollen Railway and is due to visit the East Lancashire Railway before it arrives in Norfolk.
Acknowledgements
The information used in this article was gathered from many sources, the prime ones being Barry Scrapyard – The Preservation Miracle by Alan Warren, and the websites at www.furnessrailwaytrust.org.uk/other5643.htm and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GWR_5600_Class

This article first appeared in Joint Line, the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway Society's award winning quarterly journal, which all members of the Society receive.