GWR 3200 Class

GWR 3200 Class

The Great Western Railway 3200 Class (or 'Earl' Class) was a design of 4-4-0 steam locomotive for passenger train work. The nickname for this class was Dukedog since the locomotives were composed of former Duke Class boilers on Bulldog Class frames. As such they were one of the last steam locomotive classes to retain outside frames.

The GWR absorbed the Cambrian Railways in 1923. The Cambrian main line was lightly built, and only a few classes of GWR locomotive were allowed to run over it. The Duke Class were the most powerful of these locomotives, and their allocation to the Cambrian section extended the life of the class by a number of years.

In January 1930 the cylinders and motion from Duke no. 3265 Tre Pol and Pen were fitted, with a spare Duke boiler, to the frames of Bulldog no. 3365 Charles Grey Mott. By the early 1930s the Duke Class frames, which were of the earlier curved-top type, were becoming uneconomical to repair by patching. This rebuild combined the smaller boiler of the Dukes with the more robust straight-topped frames of the Bulldogs, producing a locomotive whose weight distribution was within the limits set by the Cambrian.

The first, prototype, conversion retained its Duke number and name (3265 Tre Pol and Pen), but the others took new numbers in the 32xx series (3200-3228). The conversions were to have carried the original Duke Class names, but a decision was taken to name the class after living Earls who had some connection with the GWR. The first batch of twenty were allocated names, but, following the construction and naming of no. 3212 Earl of Eldon in May 1937, the nameplates were removed and the names given to nos. 5043-5062 of the Castles. All these locomotives were renumbered 90xx in 1946 upon delivery of new 2251 Class engines.

These locomotives were in regular use on the Cambrian Line in the 1950s. They were one of the few classes light enough to be permitted on the wooden Barmouth Bridge; others were the GWR 2251 Class and the LMS Ivatt Class 2 2-6-0.