Taffy

**Taffy** is a medium-sized tank locomotive from the Western Region. She helped Jenny to realise what it truly means to be a locomotive. Her Welsh ways made the locomotives on the line confused due to her strange design and power.

## Bio

Taffy was built in 1928 by Swindon Works for coal traffic in Wales. Designed by Charles Benjamin Collett as a mixed traffic locomotive, she proved herself as a powerful and excellent member of her class, the GWR 5600 class. During WWII, Taffy had to shunt large amounts of coal and supplies for the army, since wartime traffic lead to so many locomotives being used for military purposes.

Following the Nationalisation of Britain's railways in 1948 and being a Great Western Railway (GWR) locomotive, her number was never changed and she continued being used on coal traffic in Wales, but this time on the former rails of the old Taff Vale Railway (TVR). The coal traffic on the old TVR lines was much heavier and she met a lot of locomotives from areas she never visited, or even met before. In 1962, Taffy was placed in loan for one week for usage on the Gladsville route from Northampsmith and met Jenny, the line's resident LMS-built Ivatt 2 2-6-2T. During her visit to the route, Taffy was asked by Jenny about her strange design, and Taffy asked about why ex-LMS locomotives looked small and old, before returning to work after her week-long loan was over.

Taffy spent a quiet life and was withdrawn from Tyseley sheds in July 1965 and scrapped afterwards. Taffy was later mentioned by Armstrong in the same year of her disposal.

## Livery

Taffy is painted in BR Brunswick Green with Late Crests. Unfortunately, most of her livery is covered in coal dust and other forms of weathering.

## Basis

   Taffy is based off a real GWR 5600 class 0-6-2T. These were designed by Charles Benjamin Collett for mixed-traffic duties in Wales, mostly for coal traffic. They were built to replace the fleet of inherited Taff Vale Railway 0-6-2Ts the GWR received in 1923. Over 200 of this design was built by the GWR's Swindon Works and Armstrong Whitworth between 1924 and 1928. The class was withdrawn from 1962 and the final one retired in 1965. Nine members of this have been preserved. The 5600 class was nicknamed by enthusiasts as "Taffy Tanks" or Taffies".

No. 6644 was built at Swindon Works in 1928 and was withdrawn in 1965. It was later scrapped at Bird of Long Marston a year later.

## Trivia

Taffy's name comes from the nickname for the class. GWR 5600 class 0-6-2Ts are known by enthusiasts as "Taffies" or "Taffy tanks".

Taffy is voiced by Shreya Chand, which lead to Shane Sowter trying to make Taffy not a racist character. This lead to Shane making Taffy's face covered in coal dust to match her weathered state.

   Taffy is done via a factory-weathered GWR 5600 class 0-6-2T by Bachmann. Because of the model's weathered state.

Like Armstrong, Taffy has her own GWR "Toad" brake van, which is a diagram AA20 (oddly, in GWR Grey).

* Taffy's brake van is a Hornby model. It is later reused and seen working for the North Western Railway (NWR) still in GWR Grey.

Taffy is the first 0-6-2T and the first ex-GWR locomotive introduced into the series.