Restoration of GWR locomotive 4110 Steve Masters MEng
Chief Mechanical Engineer East Somerset Railway & Dartmouth Steam Railway
History of the Collett Designed GWR 5100 Class 2-6-2T No 4110
Built at Swindon in 1936, 4110 was initially allocated in October of that year to Severn Tunnel Junction to undertake tunnel banking duties. Two months later it was moved to the Wolverhampton district where it stayed for most of the next 26 years. It operated on the intensive local passenger services from Birmingham Snow Hill and Moor Street stations to Leamington Spa, Stratford upon Avon and Warwickshire in general. In March 1942 until April 1943 it was based at Birkenhead before returning to the Birmingham area. Whilst at Taunton in 1962, 4110 was deployed on the branch line to Minehead which is now the West Somerset Railway and at Neath in 1963 it worked the Vale of Neath line to Pontypool Road on its last day of passenger services in June 1964. It was withdrawn in June 1965 during the conversion from steam to diesel haulage, having run over 730,000 miles in mainline service. It was sold for scrap to Woodham Brothers at Barry and entered the scrapyard in August 1965. It remained there until May 1979 following its purchase for preservation by the Great Western Preservation Group at Southall Railway Centre. It was the 100th locomotive to leave the Barry scrapyard. 4110 then moved to the Birmingham Railway Museum at Tyseley for contract restoration. Only a partial amount of restoration was completed before the owners decided to put the engine up for sale in order to release funds for the completion of work on 5700 class engine 9682. The West Somerset Railway put in a competitive tender and bought 4110 in 2015 and the locomotive was then moved to Minehead in June 2015. In 2016 it was estimated that it would take three to five years once the funds and resources to undertake the work is available. It was then owned by WSR plc who planned to have it in traffic in 2022.
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With no work having been done on the locomotive by May 2018 consideration was being given by the West Somerset Railway to a possible sale of the locomotive. Any sale would be conditional on the locomotive being hired back to the WSR once it was restored. Towards the end of 2018 a group (GWR 4110 Ltd) was set up to buy the locomotive. At the same time the West Somerset Railway Association announced that they had agreed to accept ownership of the locomotive and future stewardship. It was later announced that the locomotive was had been sold to the Paignton and Dartmouth Railway as this was the best bid and the WSR needed the funds. The locomotive will run at a WSR gala at no cost as part of the deal. The locomotive was moved to the Dartmouth Steam Railway in February 2019. In September 2019 the East Somerset Railway announced that they were close to completing a deal with the Dartmouth Steam Railway to restore. the locomotive. As part of the arrangement 4110 will operate on the East Somerset Railway for three years following its restoration. The locomotive moved to Cranmore on the East Somerset Railway in January 2020 and restoration work was planned to start straight away.
Restoration Finally Begins after 40 Years!
The boiler was lifted off the frames in February 2020 following the removal of the tanks, cab and bunker.The restoration work reached a milestone in October 2020 when the frames were re-wheeled at the East Somerset Railway. In January 2021 it was
reported that the work on the locomotive was on schedule to have it in steam in 2023.
4110 arrived here at Cranmore in February 2020 and after a rapid start stripping and dismantling what was left of the loco, progress was hit hard by the introduction of the first Covid lockdown! Fortunately there were still tasks we could complete
Great Western Star Summer 2021
