On Saturday 6th January 2001 "Sentimental Journeys"
photographic steam charters visited the C&PRR.
For the visit ex GWR 1420 (on loan from the South Devon Railway)
temporarily assumed the identity of long departed 58xx class
No 5816. The charter evoked the memory of the "Bromyard pick-up
goods" - a timeless scene with the only lined black '58. To
make it happen two small deviations from strict accuracy were
allowed: the disguised 1420 is obviously fitted with auto
gear and there is no record of 5816 being fitted with a top
feed boiler although other members of the class did have them.
Collett's 58xx 0-4-2 tanks were introduced by the GWR in 1933
and were identical to the more numerous and better known 48xx
(later l4xx) class, except that they were not fitted with
auto train gear or ATC - though most of them received ATC
in later years.
No. 5816 was the only 58xx locomotive ever to carry BR lined
black livery. Most of the other nineteen members of the class
spent their BR days in unlined black and some even survived
until withdrawal in increasingly grimy GWR livery!
New from Swindon in August 1933, 5816 was, like its sister engines,
intended to replace ageing Armstrong '517' class 0-4-2Ts,
but in practice much of the traffic handled by the older locos
was taken over by ubiquitous pannier tanks. As work for the
58xx tanks became scarcer, many of the class were put in store
and were relatively early withdrawals. 5816 was withdrawn
in July 1957 and cut up at Swindon in September the same year.
Initially No. 5816 was allocated to the Cambrian section, but
soon moved to Worcester (85A) where it spent most of its working
life. In the 1930s Worcester had six 58xx tanks, but as diesel
railcars were used increasingly on Bromyard locals the 58xx
allocation dwindled to two.
You may be interested to know that only three of the l4xx auto
tanks can be confirmed to have carried BR lined black: 1417
(Birkenhead, 84K), 1465 (Machynlleth, 89C) and 1470 (Newton
Abbot, 83A).
Historical notes by Adrian Knowles with thanks to Bill Peto Register
of Great Western Railway Locomotives
