3850 is turned at Minehead

GWR 2-8-0 freight locomotive 3850

The prototype of the 28XX Class, No 97 (later No 2800) appeared in 1903, the first locomotive in Britain to use the 2-84) 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 were 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. After a brief transfer to Westbury for twelve months from March 1947, No 3850 then spent a ten year period from March 1948 to October 1958 based at Severn Tunnel Junction, where it continued on similar duties, but working regularly between South Wales and Salisbury on coal and iron ore trains. On October 22 1958 No 3850 was put into store at Severn Tunnel Junction (unrepaired), presumably due to lack of work. The 2- 8-0 was reinstated on February 2 1959 and sent to work at Aberdare shed. from where it worked until 1963. Coal trains would have been the locomotive's principal 'diet' during this time. The '38' was sent to Swindon in June 1963 for overhaul where, interestingly, 2-6-2T No 4160 was also undergoing repair at the same time.

No 3850 was sent to work from Banbury shed on November 19 1963 - by then part of the London Midland region - where it would have been used on the extensive Oxfordshire iron ore workings. It is believed that the Collett 2-8-0 was later transferred to Croes Newydd shed, Wrexham, and later Severn Tunnel Junction in August 1965, though its Engine History card gives no details of this. Total mileage to December 28 1963 was 613,010.