County Out for the !
EIGHTY-SEVEN years ago this month, the last working example of George Churchward’s ‘County’ class of 4-4-0s, No. 3834 County of Somerset, was officially withdrawn from service at Tyseley shed.
Soon afterwards, the locomotive was sent to Swindon Works to be broken up, and the ‘Counties’ were no more.
Five of the total class of 40 had made it into 1933: No. 3834 was the eldest, having been built at Swindon as one of the first batch of ‘Counties’ in 1904. The other four were withdrawn from other GWR sheds between March and June, leaving County of Somerset to fly the ‘County’ flag alone for five more months until its own turn came that November.
When its fire was dropped for the final time at Tyseley it had chalked up a very respectable 1,003,593 miles in a little more than 29 years’ service. Not a bad innings for an allegedly unsuccessful locomotive type.
Full circle
One could be forgiven for thinking, therefore, that the ‘County’ 4-4-0 story ended there. Or did it? You see, the ‘County’ story is about to come full circle and, as these words are committed to paper, the modern incarnation of Tyseley depot – Tyseley Locomotive Works (TLW) – is working on the construction of the 41st example, No. 3840 County of Montgomery, for the Churchward County Trust (CCT).
It has been almost three years since provided the launch platform
