GWR 4900 Class 4936 Kinlet Hall

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4936 Kinlet Hall
A locomotive is seen from in front and from the right. The locomotive is mainly green but the smoke box (at the front) is black and the buffer beam is red with the number 4936 written in yellow letters. The chimney is trimmed with a copper ring and the valve cover is made of brass. Behind the locomotive is a green tender with the words "GREAT WESTERN" written in yellow. In the background to the left is a signal and an engine shed with a tank engine, and to the right is a car park behind a wooden rail.
4936 Kinlet Hall at Toddington Station in 2005
Type and origin
Power type Steam
Designer Charles Collett
Build date June 1929
Specifications
Gauge 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Career
Operators Vintage Trains
Class 4900 Hall Class
Retired January 1964
Restored 2000
Disposition Operational, mainline certified

The Great Western Railway (GWR) steam locomotive No. 4936 Kinlet Hall is a preserved 4-6-0 Hall class locomotive that is currently (as of April 2015) certified for mainline operation on Network Rail.

Operation

Kinlet Hall was built in June 1929 at Swindon Works, at a cost of £5,209, and was first allocated to Chester.[1][2] The locomotive first worked with a 3500-gallon tender, but this was changed for a 4000-gallon tender in 1938.[2]

In 1941 Kinlet Hall ran into a bomb crater after a bombing raid at Plymouth, and was severely damaged.[3]

1955 Kinlet Hall was fitted with manganese steel liners (rather than the usual bronze liners) to the main axle boxes.[4] This was unique among GWR locomotives.[5]

File:Swindon station geograph-2468413-by-Ben-Brooksbank.jpg
Kinlet Hall working a freight train at Swindon in 1958

At various times the locomotive was allocated to Cardiff Canton, Laira, Old Oak Common, Oswestry, Oxley, Oxford, Shrewsbury, Stafford Road, Swindon, Truro, and finally Cardiff East Dock.[2][4]

After completing more than one million miles (1,600,000 km) in service Kinlet Hall was withdrawn from service with British Railways in January 1964 and sold for scrap to Woodham Brothers scrapyard in Barry, South Wales in June later that year.[3][4]

Preservation

File:Matlock, Peak Rail ex-GWR 'Hall' 4-6-0 geograph-2907700-by-Ben-Brooksbank.jpg
Kinlet Hall under restoration in 1983

In 1981 it was bought by the Kinlet Hall Locomotive Company and moved to Peak Rail at Matlock where restoration work began. It was moved to the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway in 1985, followed by the Llangollen Railway in 1992. In 1996 it was moved to Tyseley Locomotive Works for final restoration.[6]

The locomotive returned to operational condition in February 2000, and following certification for mainline operation it made several mainline trips to various parts of the country, sometimes in company with fellow Tyseley resident 4965 Rood Ashton Hall.[5][6] It visited the West Somerset Railway Jubilee gala 2001.[7] It has since visited several of its former homes in preservation, returning to Llangollen in June 2001, and to the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway, for much of the 2004/2005 operating season.

In 2006 it was fitted with on-train monitoring recorder (OTMR) equipment at Tyseley, and a full retube was undertaken during the first part of 2007. Between October 2007 and March 2008, the engine visited the East Lancs Railway.[8] The fitting of OTMR has allowed it to provide motive power for various mainline excursions, including Vintage Trains' Shakespeare Express and the Three Choirs Express excursion, double-heading with 5029 Nunney Castle.

After attending West Somerset Railway spring gala 2009,[9] visiting the Severn Valley Railway for summer 2009, and being displayed at the Tyseley Open Day on 25 October 2009, it was dismantled over the winter for a thorough overhaul, which was completed in around 20 months. The engine was on display at the Tyseley Open Days on 25–26 June 2011, and test running on the mainline commenced shortly afterwards. The locomotive visited the North Norfolk Railway in March 2012,[10] before visiting the Dartmouth Steam Railway between June and October 2012, hauling regular service trains on the line alongside the railway's own fleet of locomotives,[11] and also attended the Nene Valley Railway in September.[12] It then moved to the West Somerset Railway in October 2012 via the mainline. The locomotive spent 2013 hauling railtours on the mainline, before going on loan to the Severn Valley again,[13] from September 2013 to late March 2014.

After reaching an operational agreement, it spent the 2014 season on the West Somerset Railway, including the Autumn gala.[14] It was then agreed that it would remain at the West Somerset Railway during 2015,[14] apart from a visit to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway for that line's spring steam gala in April.[15] In April 2015, it was announced that Kinlet Hall Ltd and WSR plc had agreed a five-year residency period for the locomotive, to be based at Minehead. The agreement allows for periods of both mainline running and visits to other preserved railways events.[16] After running two Steam Dreams tours to Paignton and Kingswear in late September, she is scheduled to attended the North Yorkshire Moors Railway Autumn steam gala, running via Bristol and the Welsh Marches Line to Liverpool and then across the Hope Valley Line, to avoid loading gauge restrictions on the former London Midland and Scottish Railway mainline that could cause damage to her cylinders.[17]

Models

In 2005 Bachmann produced an OO gauge model of Kinlet Hall in GWR green with crest.[18][19]

In 2008 Lionel, LLC produced an O gauge train set (Lionel Shakespeare Express “Kinlet Hall” Passenger Set) comprising Kinlet Hall and three GWR coaches.[20]

References

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  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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