GWR No.5051 'Earl Bathurst'/ 'Drysllwyn Castle'
GWR No. 5051 Drysllwyn Castle or Earl Bathurst is a Castle
class 4073 engine and was built in the GWR Swindon Works in 1936. The castle was
withdrawn in 1963 and was purchased by the Great Western Society at Didcot in
1970 and spent the next 10 years being overhauled.
After the 10 year full restoration, the Castle was returned to
service and made a number of successful main line runs, including the GWR 150th
Celebrations in 1985, where a huge summer programme of mainline steam services
ran to celebrate 150 years of the Great Western Railway.
Its Welsh name is appropriate for a
locomotive which spent all its working days based in the principality, but this
name was not carried for long after the locomotive's completion in 1936, a year
later it was renamed Earl Bathurst. Both sets of nameplates are available at
Didcot Railway Centre in Oxfordshire and they exchange the nameplates from time
to time.
Most recently Earl Bathurst has come through another major overhaul in 2000 and
is now back on the mainline where it belongs, but it has not been chosen by tour
operates since its double head excursion with GWR Nunney Castle in May 2001,
with its mainline ticket expiring in a few years time the Society at Didcot feel
the Castle is 'wasting away'. A main line ticket is needed for any steam engine
to run on the mainline and it lasts for 7 yrs, after that an engine will be used
on preserved lines until it's 10 year boiler ticket has expired and then the
engine has to overhauled again.
Locomotive Details
Name: Drysllwyn Castle/Earl Bathurst
Number: 5051
Class of Locomotive: Castle Class
Valve gear: Walschaerts with rocking shafts
Tractive Effort: 31,625 pounds
Built: 1936 at Swindon Works
Locomotive Weight: 126 tons 11 cwt
Length: 65 feet 2 inches
Coal Capacity in the tender: 6 tons
Water Capacity: 4000 gallons
Boiler pressure: 225lb/sq inch
