Great Western Saint Class Locomotives by Laurence Waters

Author:Laurence Waters
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2017-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

All is not lost, however, as the Great Western Society have constructed a new Saint at Didcot Railway Centre. Using many original Great Western parts, it is numbered 2999 and named Lady of Legend.

Interestingly, the preserved Collett Hall no. 4965 Rood Ashton Hall is currently running with a standard no. 1 boiler no. 2800. This boiler was built at Swindon in 1930 and was fitted from new on no. 2930 Saint Vincent from 1 October 1930 to 17 November 1935, being used again on no. 2971 Albion from 16 January 1942 until 2971’s withdrawal on 12 January 1946. A full list of Saint Class withdrawal dates and final mileages can be found in the appendix.

I have mentioned repair dates and other details such as tender numbers on a number of the photo legends. These have been obtained from the official ex-Great Western Saint class engine register sheets held at The National Archives at Kew. The classified repairs are shown as:

Pre-1948, G – General, H – Heavy, I – Intermediate, L – Light and R – Running repair. Post-1948, the Western Region used the following descriptions: HC – Heavy Classified, HG – Heavy General, HI – Heavy Intermediate, LC – Light Casual, LI – Light Intermediate and U – Unclassified.

Locomotive allocations as used are shown in the photo legends.

Prior to nationalisation Great Western shed allocation codes were stencilled in the cab and later on the locomotive side frame in front of the cylinders. Although some forty-seven members of the Saint class passed into BR stock in 1948 only thirty survived to be fitted with smokebox number plates and probably even less received, the BR shed plates that were fitted to the lower smokebox door. In February 1950 the new Western Region started to use these new shedcodes, so for pictures taken after this date I have used the BR codes.

Saints were allocated at various times to the following locomotive depots:

PDN pre 1906 Westbourne Park

PDN post 1906 Old Oak Common (81A)

RDG Reading (81D)

OXF Oxford (81F)

BL Bristol Bath Road (82A)

SWN Swindon (82C)

WES Westbury (82D)

SAL Salisbury

WEY Weymouth (82F)

NA Newton Abbot (83A)

TN Taunton (83B)

EXE Exeter (83C)

PLY Plymouth Laira (83D)/Millbay

WPN Wolverhampton Stafford Road (84A)

BAN Banbury (84C)

LMTN Leamington (84D)

TYS Tyseley (84E)

SALOP Shrewsbury (84G)

CHR Chester (84K)

WOS Worcester (85A)

GLO Gloucester (85B)

HFD Hereford (85C)

NPT Newport (86A)

CDF Cardiff Canton (86C)

PPL Pontypool Road (86G)

LDR Landore (87E)

FGD Fishguard Goodwick (87J)

On 28 December 1912, no. 100 William Dean was renumbered 2900. It is pictured here at Ranelagh Bridge Sidings, opposite Royal Oak Station, in the 1920s. It is in its final condition, with standard no. 1 superheated boiler. It was withdrawn in June 1932, by which time its non-standard cylinders had reached their re-boring limit. P.J. Reed/Great Western Trust

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