GWR 2800 Class

The GWR 2800 Class is a class of 2-8-0 steam locomotives designed by George Jackson Churchward in 1903 for heavy freight work. It was the first 2-8-0 class in Great Britain. A prototype, numbered 97 and later 2800, appeared in 1903 and spent two years in trials, and the production series of 84 engines was built from 1905 to 1919 with the familiar taper boiler. The engines were the principal long-haul freight locomotives of the Great Western Railway in the 1920s and 1930s and were used above all to haul coal from the South Wales coalfields. Charles Collett developed the design into the 2884 Class from 1938. Six locomotives of the 2800 Class have been preserved.