Murphy

**Murphy** is a GWR 5700 pannier tank that works on the Moorland Steam Railway. He is also the main character in 'Western Super Pannier', the second movie in the franchise, and is the third GWR locomotive and only pannier tank preserved by the MSR.

## Bio

Murphy was built at Swindon Works in 1929 for shunting dues and ended up finding his way to St Philips Marsh MPD in BR days. He worked with other ex-GWR locomotives and even one BR-built, ex-GWR design. In 1964, the days of steam in Bristol was coming to an end and St Philips Marsh started to perform mass withdrawals (starting with County of Chester a year earlier).

That year, he was one of five locomotives from the Western Region for preservation on the MSR, of which only two can be selected from the five. Murphy normally had trouble with Bucklebury Grange since he didn't want to perform duties and was told to be kept in "his place" by a Large Prairie tank of the Collett batch. Since Murphy and a 2251 class 0-6-0 worked the hardest to be selected for preservation, they were both repainted to Great Western green as a way to show they no longer belonged to BR. Murphy normally worked with the railway's resident shunting tank (Jinty) with shunting around Northampsmith MPD, which Murphy recalled his St Philips Marsh days as shed pilot.

In 1968, Murphy was withdrawn following boiler leaks being discovered during a boiler inspection and was placed in storage in the warehouses at Gladsville Dockyard to await a restoration and overhaul.

## Livery

When Murphy first arrived, he was painted in BR Unlined Black with Late Crest, plus covered in grease and grime (weathered).

When officially preserved by the MSR, Murphy is painted in Great Western Green (same livery as Andy).

In 2008, Murphy was repainted in BR Lined Black with Early Emblems and for the 150th anniversary of the London Underground, into London Transport Maroon livery with red rods and a fictional number L.100.

## Basis or real locomotive

   Murphy is based on the real No. 5770. It was one of 863 5700 class pannier tanks (with three sub-classes) used for shunting by the GWR. The popular name came from the water tanks swung over the boiler like pannier baskets. The 5700s were built by Swindon Works and six outside contractors, becoming the most numerous class of tank engine on the Great Western and are now a Swindon classic. The class was replaced by DMUs on branchlines and by diesel-mechanical shunters in yards between 1956 on mainline work and in private/industrial service in 1971, but sources for the NCB panniers state their retirement in the mid-1970s. 16 examples have been preserved with three mainline operational. The first preserved 5700 (no. 9642) had an interesting role as Hayes Scrapyard's shunter following its withdrawal by BR in 1964.

No. 5770 was built at Swindon in 1929 and was withdrawn in 1961. It was later scrapped a year later.

## Trivia

Murphy's models are made from Bachmann Branchline models of the 5700 both second-hand and the two reintroduced to the range in the 2019 catalogue, but renumbered.

* In total, Murphy has two models, one with three bodies.

The introduction of Murphy came from Bachmann's reintroduction of the 5700 0-6-0PT in both BR Unlined Black with Late Crest and London Transport Maroon.

Murphy is the only pannier tank owned by the MSR.

Strangely, Murphy is the smallest mainline registered locomotive on the MSR. This's a reference to the three mainline panniers stationed at Tyseley.

* Murphy also has a converted Mk1 BG like the mainline panniers.

Murphy appears to have the catchphrase "Never mind", no matter the mood he's in.