1920s: Locomotive exchanges between the GWR and LNER in 1925 saw No. 4079 Pendennis Castle work out of King’s Cross (where it is pictured in company with LNER ‘D2’ No. 4337), with contemporary reports saying the‘Castle’handled 16-coach trains with apparent ease.
M W EARLEY
1930s: With streamlining all the rage, in 1935 the GWR experimented with No. 6014 King Henry VII and No. 5005 Manorbier Castle, although the results were arguably less elegant than those of the other‘Big Four’companies – the design said to be based on Plasticine moulded to a paperweight model of a‘Castle’by chief mechanical engineer Charles Collett. The GWR soon abandoned the idea and the additions to the‘King’ and‘Castle’ were gradually removed – this view of No. 5005 at Radley is before 1939 (when the bullnose was taken off) but after streamlining around the cylinders and motion had gone to prevent overheating; the chimney and safety valve cowlings were kept until 1943. Note the straight nameplates and splashers, which remained until 1946.
J KINNISON
1940s: An early British Railways look, with the nationalised company name on the tender but no logo or emblems, No. 5072 Hurricane (which had been renamed from Compton Castle at the end of 1940) stands at Carmarthen in 1949.
BEN BOWEN