GWR 48xx/58xx/14xx 0-4-2 Auto Tanks

The GWR 48xx class 0-4-2T tank locomotives were designed specifically for working with one or two trailer coaches in push-pull or 'auto train' service. The driving cab of the trailer or 'autocoach' was equipped with a regulator control connected to the engine, eliminating the need for the locomotive to run round at the end of the journey. A single autocoach combined with a 48xx engine provided passenger services along many minor and branch lines, sometimes with an extra wagon or milk tank attached for the journey. Being fitted with 5ft2in wheels these engines were quite capable of operating local stopping services on mainline routes, one of the last being the Gloucester to Chalford auto which frequently raced LMS trains on the approach to Gloucester.

While the 48xx design is attributed to C B Collett the locomotives were a modernised version of the Armstrong 517 class (built 1868-85) which had proven successful on the same duties. By the 1930s the 517s were nearing the end of their working lives and a total of 75 of the auto fitted 48xx class engines were built 1932-36. A further 20 non-auto engines numbered in the 58xx series were built concurrently for lines where auto working was not in use, regularly hauling the last of the 4 wheel coaches. Later a two-coach B set or a single bogie coach, usually a brake composite was provided.

Soon after WW2 the 48xx class engines were renumbered into the 14xx series, the 48xx numbers being used for 28xx/38xx class 2-8-0s converted to oil firing. The new numbers were retained through British Railways ownership and the class is possibly best known as the '14s'. All the original 48xx class engines were fitted with boilers without top feed fittings, however some 517 class boilers were modified to also fit 48xx class engines. It appears that as these boilers were replaced the new boilers and possibly boilers fitted new to the last batches of 48xx engines built were equipped with top feeds. Boilers being interchangeable between engines resulted in many individual locomotives receiving top feed boilers and in some cases reverting to older boiler at a later change, though it can be considered the top feed boilers were rare before the British Railways period.

Four examples are preserved, with 1466 being the first engine purchased by the schoolboy founders of the Great Western Society and housed today at preserved Didcot shed.

The Dapol 48xx/14xx and autocoach combination or 58xx and suburban coach or B-set will provide a suitable passenger train for any GWR based layout.