GWR Firefly Class

The Firefly was a class of broad gauge 2-2-2 steam locomotives used for passenger services on the Great Western Railway, introduced between March 1840 and December 1842 and withdrawn between December 1863 and July 1879. Daniel Gooch developed it from the Star class and North Star, with larger boilers, and the original Fire Fly was followed by 61 similar locomotives. The engines came from several builders, among them Jones, Turner and Evans, Sharp, Roberts and Company, Fenton, Murray and Jackson, and Nasmyth, Gaskell and Company. The original Fire Fly is said to have covered the 30.75 miles from Twyford to London Paddington in 37 minutes, an average of 50 miles per hour that was unprecedented in 1840. Fire King crashed in front of Brunel on 25 October 1840, the first recorded accident on the railway. From about 1865 the class became part of the Priam Class.