Four of the surviving eight ‘Castles’ were lined up at Tyseley on June 16, for a Timeline photo charter, with (from left) Nos. 7029, 5043, 4079 and 5080.
RICHARD LILLIE
THE 4073 ‘Castle’ Class was one of the most powerful and successful types of locomotive for the Great Western Railway.
Although the later ‘Kings’ were more powerful, they were also heavier and therefore restricted to a smaller number of routes, and so ‘Castles’ could be found hauling many of the fastest and heaviest express workings across a larger part of the GWR network.
The ‘Castles’ were designed by Charles Collett as a development of the previous successful ‘Star’ Class, but with a larger boiler and higher tractive effort for use of fast and heavy express passenger workings.