GWR 9400 Class

The GWR 9400 Class is a class of 0-6-0 pannier tank steam locomotive, used for shunting and banking duties.
The first ten 9400s were the last steam engines built by the GWR. After nationalisation in 1948, another 200 were built by private contractors for British Railways (BR). Most had very short working lives as the duties for which they were designed disappeared through changes in working practices or were taken over by diesel locomotives. Two locomotives survived into preservation, one as part of the National Collection.
==Design==
The 9400 class was the final development in a long lineage of tank locomotives that can be directly traced to the 645 Class of 1872. Over the decades details altered, the most significant being the adoption of Belpaire fireboxes necessitating pannier tanks.
The 9400 resembled a pannier tank version of the 2251 class, and indeed shared the same boiler and cylinders as the 2251, but was in fact a taper-boilered development of the 8750 subgroup of the 5700 class. The advantage was a useful increase in boiler power, but there was a significant weight penalty that restricted route availability. The 10 GWR-built locomotives had superheatersbut the remainder did not.
The first ten 9400s were built by the Great Western and were the last steam engines built by the company. After the nationalisation of Britain's railways in 1948, private contractors built another 200 for British Railways.
The 9400s were numbered 9400–9499, 8400–8499 and 3400–3409. BR gave them the power classification 4F.
==Build details==
Table of orders and numbers
Lot No.	Fleet Nos.	Manufacturer 	Serial Nos. 	Date 	Notes
365 	9400–9409 	Swindon Works 	— 	1947 	
382 	9410–9459 	Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns	7547–7596 	1950–1951	
383 	9460–9489 	Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns	7611–7640 	1950–1953	
384 	8400–8449 	W. G. Bagnall 	2910–2959 	1949–1954	
385 	8450–8479 	Yorkshire Engine Company 	2443–65/67–71/66/72	1949–1952	
386 	8480–8499 	Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns	7450–7469 	1952 	under subcontract from Hudswell Clarke
387 	9490–9499 	Yorkshire Engine Company 	2544–2553 	1954–1955	under subcontract from Hunslet Engine Company
387 	3400–3409 	Yorkshire Engine Company 	2575–2584 	1955–1956	under subcontract from Hunslet Engine Company
No. 3409 was the last locomotive built for British mainline use by private contractors. It was ordered by GWR in December 1947 and delivered by Yorkshire Engine Company in October 1956.
==Operations==
The 9400 class were used on Paddington empty stock work right up to the end of steam on the Western Region of British Railways. A familiar sight at the buffer stops at departure side in 1964–1965 was a filthy 9400 class locomotive devoid of number plates simmering at the head of a rake of Mark 1 coaches.
Numbers 8400 to 8406 served as bank engines on the Lickey Incline after its transferal to the Western Region.
In retrospect they were a wasteful investment, many having very short lives of less than 10 years as their intended work dried up and diesels quickly took over their remaining duties. 8447 holds the unenviable record of the shortest life of any GWR loco in BR times, beginning in August 1954 and ending four years and nine months later in May 1959.
== Preservation==
Two have been preserved:
GWR/BR No.	TOPS No.	Built	Home base 	Notes 	Image
9400 	n/a 	1947 	Swindon Steam Railway Museum 	Part of the National Railway Collection	
9466 	98466 	1948 	Buckinghamshire Railway Centre	Operational and mainline certified. 	
==Gallery==
File:9466-002-750x563.jpg
File:9466-George-Saville-750x563.jpg
Category:Steam locomotives
Category:Tank locomotives
Category:Great Western Railway locomotives
Category:0-6-0 locomotives
Category:0-6-0 steam locomotives
Category:0-6-0PT steam locomotives
Category:Pannier tank locomotives
Category:Six-coupled locomotives
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Category:Built in 1947
Category:Bagnall locomotives
Category:Robert Stephenson locomotives
Category:Swindon Works locomotives
Category:Yorkshire Engine locomotives
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Category:0-6-0PT locomotives
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Category:Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain