GWR 1000 Class - Overview

Overview

These locomotives were the result of a development project by the Chief Mechanical Engineer Frederick W. Hawksworth. He was working on a design for a new 4-6-2 (Pacific) express locomotive for the Great Western, and the County Class was a testbed for a number of the ideas he wanted to incorporate into the Pacific. There was talk of them at one point having outside Walschaerts valve gear which would have been a major break from traditional GWR designs. In the event the favoured inside Stephenson link motion of the GWR was used, but the GWR 1500 Class, also designed by Hawksworth, used outside Walschaerts – the only locomotive designed by the GWR to do so.