BR Standard Class 3 2-6-2T - Service

Service

From new, they were based on the Western Region, Southern Region, North Eastern Region and London Midland Region. The class had a short life as most of the work that they had been built for soon disappeared with the branch lines and the introduction of DMU services on shorter routes. The shortest lived was 82043, only 8 years 8 months old at withdrawal; the longest lived was 82019, two months short of its fifteenth birthday. The class' design life, however, was 40 years.

The last two Class 3 tanks in service were nos. 82019 and 82029 at Nine Elms but four more survived until after the end of steam. Nos. 82000, 82003, 82031 and 82034 were transferred from North Wales at the end of 1966 to Patricroft shed in Manchester for use on local suburban trains. They were not really required there however, but nevertheless they lingered there until the shed's closure in 1968. One of these four had run very few miles since its final overhaul, and enquiries were made about saving it, but the price being asked (£1,500 - a lot of money in 1968) was too high and they went for scrap at Cashmore's in Newport, South Wales, being broken up as late as October 1968.