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HISTORY OF GWR no.7200
The earliest known photograph of 7200
The finishing touches are made into a 2-8-2T wheel arrangement inside the former 'A' Shop at GWR Swindon Works, August 1934.
Existing photographs of 5275 are yet to be found.
"Seventy-two hundred" began life in 1930 originally as a 2-8-0T wheel arrangement numbered 5275, the first engine built to Great Western railway lot no.266 (a batch order of twenty new 2-8-0T engines). The building cost of 5275 was £4,380 which included £933 for the boiler.
Since 1910, the 2-8-0T tank class were built specifically to service the South Wales coal traffic and performed this work very capably, being popular amongst the drivers who found their great adhesive weight most useful on the steeply graded lines of the Welsh valleys.
However in the year 1930, the South Wales coal and steel exports were falling as a result of the Wall Street crash of 1929, and consequently many of the 2-8-0T (42xx/52xx) class had little to no work.
In a situation like this, it is thought the class would've simply been transferred to other routes, but this couldn't be done due to their short-journey coal and water capacity.
Rather than face the prospect of loosing their skilled workforce, the GWR continued building lot no.266 (5275-94) resulting in all twenty surplus engines put immediately into storage at Swindon Works.
Over a span of 4 years, 5275 managed to clock up 1408 miles. It is believed she was used on occasion for various local assignments.
Swindon's cheif mechanical engineer Charles B. Collett, found a solution to the dilemma with these already redundant engines by extending the rear of the frames by 4 feet, allowing a larger bunker to be fitted resulting in a higher coal and water capacity.
With a greater distance range, this made the new proposed 72xx class a more versatile engine to run on other parts of the GWR network, eventually replacing William Dean's ageing 26xx 'Aberdare' freight class.
5275 re-entered the factory on the 23rd July 1934 for alteration to 2-8-2T arrangement, and was re-numbered 7200. The prototype modifications cost £200.
"Resplendant in Great Western green, the newly converted 7200 stands outside Swindon works, August 1934"
After completion on August 31st 1934, 7200 left Swindon for the Welsh Neath division and was shedded at Llanelli until 1940, establishing herself on the London run coal trains amongst other freight duties.
She returned to Swindon Works for light repairs and again in 1942 for an intermediate repair.
For some reason in 1943, 7200 ended up at Tyseley for repairs, leaving soon afterwards to return to her home ground.
In 1944 after completing 226,294 miles she was shopped at Caerphilly, where she received her second boiler C2606 and then returned to Llanelli and Landore for a short while.
7200 at Newton Abbot
In February 1947, 7200 then moved on to new pastures, the Newton Abbot Division. Regularly carrying out banking duties from Aller Junction to Dainton Tunnel, working the Stoneycombe ballast trains and the monthly coal train up the Kingswear branch.
She was even known to have worked holiday trains from Paignton to Newton Abbot in times of extreme locomotive shortages.
In February 1950, she moved to St. Blazey to help out in the china clay traffic for 2 years.
7200 passing Dainton Gorge, Newton Abbot, August 22nd 1949
Peter Gray - The Transport Library
Returning to Swindon Works in 1952 for a heavy general overhaul, 7200 received her third boiler C3174 after 408,686 miles.
It was around this time she also received a modernised "scuttle" bunker.
This was a revisited bunker design installed on the final fourteen converted 42xx's (7240-53) and for some reason added to a random handful of the class outside this batch including 7200, 7201, 7210 and 7239 during their heavy overhauls. Possibly due to corrosion/damage on their original fitted "converted" bunkers.
This mod consisted of a higher rivet line which increased the class's water capacity by an extra 200 gallons.
7200 is the only surviving loco of it's class to have this unique feature.
7200 being banked by 2-8-0T 5209 on a train of empties, South Wales
7200 on a eastbound mixed freight train approaching Cardiff from St Fagans
On completion of the overhaul 7200 returned to her old stomping grounds of Llanelli, Ebbw Junction and Landore, completing only a further 75,281 miles before returning to Caerphilly in 1956 for her third heavy general and her fourth boiler C5218 (which she still carries to the present day).
From there, 7200 moved on to Danygraig, Llanelli and Landore, clocking up another 70,000 miles with general freight and iron ore duties, before returning from Duffryn Yard (Port Talbot) in 1960 for her last heavy intermediate repair at Caerphilly.
During the last two years of service 7200 managed to clock up a further 50,000 miles including a trip to Stafford Road Wolverhampton for her final light casual in February 1962.
A year later, on the 2nd July 1963, 7200 was condemned - aged 33 years, and with a total of 605,523 miles. The equivalent to 25 laps around the world's circumference
7200 at Wolverhampton Stafford Road Works receiving her last ever 'Light Casual Repair' (L/C) on February 18th 1962
Rail-Online
7200 stands lifeless outide Llanelli Sheds before being moved to the Barry Scrapyard, 1963
Rail-Online
On the 9th October 1963 she was withdrawn from Llanelli shed (87F) and sold to the Woodham Bros. on Barry island, South Wales, where she stood in a siding rusting for eighteen years.
In September 1981 she departed Barry - the 137th engine to do so - and was moved to the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre, where she stood in the sidings for a further fifteen years. The 7200 Trust was formed in 1998, and restoration has started.
Mothballed at Quainton Road c.1990s
The rolling chassis were restored at the former 'J' Shop at Swindon Works in 2006, and now has the distinction of being the last locomotive to leave the once eminent GWR works, closing 165 years of railway history.
Fifteen years and £200,000 later, the progress made has been impressive, but there is still much to do and money to be raised. It is hoped to use her when fully restored here at Quainton Road and on visits to other preserved railways with lengthy track and steep gradients, when once again the sharp bark of her exhaust will be heard.
The smoothest and fastest she's run since 1963
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