GWR 9400

The GWR 9400 Class was a series of outside-cylinder 0-6-0 pannier-tank locomotives designed by Frederick Hawksworth and built at Swindon Works and by outside contractors between 1947 and 1956, representing Hawksworth's enlarged development of the standard GWR 5700 Class pannier tank with a larger boiler for heavier shunting and local goods duties. The 9400 Class was the last new pannier tank design produced before nationalisation and the end of GWR locomotive policy, and with 210 examples built it became the second most numerous of all GWR pannier tank classes after the 5700.

Hawksworth's key change from the 5700 was a larger taper boiler — a Swindon No. 10 taper boiler replacing the parallel boiler of the 5700 — which gave better steaming and higher tractive effort for the heavier shunting work that the class was intended for. The outside cylinders and pannier tanks were retained from the 5700 design, giving the 9400 a family resemblance to its predecessor while the taper boiler gave it a noticeably different profile from the parallel-boilered 5700 when viewed from the side.

The 9400 Class entered service from 1947 and worked heavy shunting, trip goods, and local freight duties across the Western Region under both the GWR and British Railways. The class gave reliable service into the early 1960s. One example, 9466, is preserved and works on the Didcot Railway Centre, the heritage site operated by the Great Western Society at the former GWR locomotive depot at Didcot.