Photo and History of GWR City Class 3440 4-4-0 UK Steam Locomotive

Great Western Railway City Class Steam Loco

Great Western Railway 3440 'City of Truro' Steam Locomotive

Photo of the Great Western Railway's 3700 'City' Class UK steam locomotive, designed by William Dean for use as express passenger motive power on the GWR, came into being following George Jackson Churchward's rebuilding in September 1902, of Atbara Class 4-4-0 No. 3405 Mauritius, by replacing the original boiler with his new Standard No.4 design.

Following successful trials with 3405 (3705) Mauritius, 10 new steam locomotives were ordered and built at the GWR Swindon Works in 1903, bearing the numbers 3433-3442.

As a point of interest it cost £1,957 to construct No. 3440 (later renumbered 3717) 'City of Truro'.

The new batch of locomotives was added to by the rebuilding of another nine Atbaras between 1907 and 1909. Between 1910 and 1912, all 20 engines in the class received superheaters.

Regular passenger services between Paddington and Bristol, and on the non-stop Paddington to Plymouth 'Cornish Riviera Express', were hauled by 'Cities' as their first employment on the Great Western Railway network.

In 1905, London to Birmingham passenger trains which were at the time still routed through Oxford, began to be hauled by a 'City' locomotive until a few years later when they were gradually replaced by 4-6-0s and Atlantics.

Following on from this, the 'City' class locos then saw service between Birmingham and Bristol.

After 24 years of service the writing was on the wall for the 55 ton, double-framed, 'City' class locomotives and withdrawal was on the horizon.

No. 3441 (3718) 'City of Winchester' was condemned in October 1927, swiftly followed by the others until only 2 of the original 20 remained – 3435 (3712)'City of Bristol' and 3440 (3717) 'City of Truro'.

'City of Bristol' was scrapped in May 1931. However, through the efforts of various parties, 'City of Truro' was saved and, when not on display at York railway museum, can still be seen today at various locations heading up 'specials' around the UK.

During a working life of 28 years, 'City of Truro', which incidentally was the 2,000^th steam locomotive to be constructed at Swindon, had clocked up an impressive 1,000,483 miles of hauling.

List of 'City' locomotive numbers and names. Numbers in brackets are those renumbered in 1912.

3400 (3700) Durban

3401 (3701) Gibraltar

3402 (3702) Halifax

3403 (3703) Hobart

3404 (3704) Lyttelton

3405 (3705) Mauritius

3406 (3706) Melbourne

3407 (3707) Malta

3408 (3708) Ophir  &  Killarny

3409 (3709) Quebec

3433 (3710) City of Bath

3434 (3711) City of Birmingham

3435 (3712) City of Bristol

3436 (3713) City of Chester

3437 (3714) City of Gloucester

3438 (3715) City of Hereford

3439 (3716) City of London

3440 (3717) City of Truro

3441 (3718) City of Winchester

3442 (3719) City of Worcester   &  City of Exeter

 

 

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'City of Truro' GWR steam locomotive on YouTube:

Locos in Profile: 'City of Truro'.

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