Steam Trains and Engines

We have just seen the typical mixed traffic 4-6 0 as designed by Stanier for the L.M.S. Railway. All four post-grouping companies possessed similar machines, suitable for passenger or freight work and all virtually alike in major dimensions.

Thus the L.N.E.R. has built ' Bl ' 4-6-0s in vast numbers, the Southern relies on Maunsell's ' S15s,' and on the Great Western Collett's ' Hall' class engines are as much at home on express passenger turns as on local freights. Based on Churchward's 'Saint ' 4-6-0s, one of which was rebuilt by Collett with 6-ft. wheels, the lirsl ' Hall ' appeared in 1928. Almost identical with the ' Saints,' No. 4901 had two 18 in. x 30 in. cylinders,
6-ft. driving wheels and a large cab similar to that on the ' Castle ' class.

Intended as a general utility 4-6-0 to replace the ' Saints ' and also the many G.W.R. 4-4-0 types, the ' Halls ' were built in large numbers until a total of 259 were in use. After the war Collett's successor F. W. Hawks-worth built a further seventy-one engines with larger superheaters and one-piece main frames. All were named after ancestral halls in England and Wales and were used on a wide variety of trains, such as the through Paignton-Manchester express here seen leaving Torquay behind' Wycliffe Hall.' A few remain in service and are likely to be the last Western Region passenger steam engines to be withdrawn.