GWR 1500 Class

The Great Western Railway 1500 Class was a class of ten 0-6-0 pannier tank steam locomotives numbered 1500 to 1509. They were a Hawksworth design for the Great Western, but all ten were completed in 1949 under the Western Region of British Railways, just after nationalisation. They broke with GWR practice by having outside cylinders, Walschaerts valve gear and a very short wheelbase of 12 ft 10 in to go round curves of 3.5 chains, and above the footplate they closely resembled the 9400 Class, sharing its Standard No. 10 boiler. Their high weight restricted the routes they could use and the short wheelbase made fast running unsuitable, so they were largely confined to empty stock workings at London Paddington and had short lives. No. 1501 has run regularly on the Severn Valley Railway in preservation.