The prototype of the 28XX Class, No 97 (later No 2800) appeared in 1903, the first locomotive in Britain to use the 2-8-0) wheel arrangement. By 1919, a total of eighty four Churchward 2-8-0's had been constructed at Swindon. The locomotives proved ideally suited to hauling heavy goods traffic, for which they were designed, and in 1906, No 2808 established a new record haul by a single steam locomotive, working 107 loaded coal wagons (2,012 tons) between Swindon and Acton.
After a lapse of nearly 20 years, construction was resumed, with a further 83 locomotives being produced between 1938 and 1942 to a slightly modified design by C.B. Collett, Churchward's successor (known as the '2884' Class). The 2-8-0's was responsible for the majority of heavy freight workings on the GWR and, later, BR Western Region.
No 3850 was one of the last batch of twenty three '2884' Class locomotives built, being turned out from Swindon on June 16 1942, at a cost of £7,911, and painted in wartime black livery. The locomotive's first shed allocation was St Phillip's Marsh. Bristol. where it would have worked trains into South Wales, Salisbury. the Midlands and the West Country. No 3850 was purchased by Woodham's scrapyard. Barry, where it languished for almost twenty years. During 1983, the 38XX Preservation Society was launched with a view to bringing one of the Great Western 2-8-0's to the WSR and restoring it for use on the line. The locomotive arrived at Bishops Lydeard by road, being unloaded on March 3 of that year.
My thanks to Keith Smith for some of the above text. The whole article can be seen at:
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