GWR 0-4-2T 1450 (4850)

The 14xx class  (originally numbered in the 48xx series) was introduced in 1932.

75 were built fitted with 'push-pull' apparatus and a further 20, numbered 5800 to 5819, were built without push-pull control. They were a development of the old 517 Class 0-4-2 tanks built in the 1870s. The push-pull or auto train apparatus enabled the 14xx to work the specially constructed auto coaches (known as trailers) which the Great Western so much favoured for its branch line and some suburban services. The engine could work its train in either direction without the need to run round at termini.

1450 was built by the GWR at Swindon in 1935 as no 4850 at a cost of £2255, including £497 for the boiler, and spent much of her working life shedded at Oxford. In January 1952, she was moved to Slough shed, where she remained until 1961 when she returned to Oxford.

In 1962 she came west to Taunton before transfer to the Southern Region and being tried on the steeply graded former London & South Western Railway Axminster to Lyme Regis branch. She was withdrawn from Exmouth Junction shed in May 1965, having covered 823,012 miles, and purchased by the Dart Valley Railway, then owners of our line, and moved to Buckfastleigh.

She became one of the mainstays of the line in the early days of preservation and worked throughout the seventies and eighties between Buckfastliegh and Totnes, before being sold by the DVR to Mike Little who has now restored her to main line standards and teamed her up with auto coach no 178. 1450 can now been seen at a number of preserved railways throughout the country. It is a joy to see her back on the SDR.

Three other class members survive: our own 1420, 1442, which worked the Lyme Regis branch with 1450, at Tiverton Museum and 4866 at the Great Western Society in Didcot. 

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GWR 0-4-2T no 1450 with auto trailer no 178 working on the West Somerset Railway in 2005. Photo Don Bishop.

 1450 was previously based on our line. Here she is leaving Staverton on a train to Totnes in October 1980. Photo: John Brodribb.