Port Talbot Railway 0-6-2T (Stephenson)

Port Talbot Railway 0-6-2T Stephenson Class
Type and origin
Power type Steam
Designer Robert Stephenson and Company
Builder Robert Stephenson and Company
Build date 1898
Total produced 11
Rebuilder Great Western Railway
Rebuild date 1925
Number rebuilt 2
Specifications
Configuration 0-6-2T
Gauge 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Driver dia. 4 ft 6 in (1.372 m)
Loco weight 56 long tons (63 short tons; 57 t)
rebuilt = 55.4 long tons (62.0 short tons; 56.3 t)
Boiler pressure 180 psi (1.2 MPa)
rebuilt = 200 psi (1.4 MPa)
Cylinders 2, inside
Cylinder size 18 in × 26 in (457 mm × 660 mm)
Valve gear Stephenson
Valve type slide valves
Performance figures
Tractive effort 21,215 lbf (94.37 kN)
rebuilt = 23,870 lbf (106.2 kN)

This Stephenson Class were eleven 0-6-2T locomotives introduced into traffic in 1898 designed and built by Robert Stephenson and Company for the Port Talbot Railway. They predated the somewhat similar but larger Rhymney M class by six years.

They were successful designs ideally suited to hauling coal trains a relatively short distance. Four of the class were nevertheless quickly sold, two to the Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway in 1901; and two more to the Neath and Brecon in 1903. This left seven to be absorbed into the Great Western Railway (GWR) in 1922.

In 1925 two were rebuilt with the then newly developed number 10 standard boiler and high domed cab by the GWR. In this form they were visually akin to a smaller version of the GWR 5600 Class introduced in 1924.

Welsh 0-6-2T types

The numerous railways of South Wales had one thing in common apart from transporting coal in large quantities; their liking for the 0-6-2T type. The first was in 1885 on the Taff Vale Railway the design being by their mechanical engineer Tom Hurry Riches, father of Charles T. Hurry Riches who was the designer of the Rhymney Stephensons.

The suitability of the type was because the nature of the work they undertook demanded high adhesive weight, plenty of power with good braking ability, but no need for outright speed, nor large tanks or bunker as the distances from pit to port were short. These Welsh locomotives were taken over by the GWR at the grouping in 1923 and many, including seventeen of the Rhymney A, M, P and R's, were rebuilt with GWR taper boilers. All the Rhymney Stephenson-derived locos passed into British Railways (BR) ownership in 1948. Others included (with some gaps in numbering):

For further information on these pre-grouping locomotives see Locomotives of the Great Western Railway.

See also

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