GWR Pyracmon Class

The GWR Pyracmon Class was a series of broad-gauge 0-6-0 goods locomotives built for the Great Western Railway from 1845, representing Daniel Gooch's development of the Hercules Class goods engine into a more capable and refined type suited to the increasing goods traffic of the GWR's expanding broad-gauge network. Named after Pyracmon, one of the Cyclopes of classical mythology who worked at Vulcan's forge, the class continued the GWR's tradition of giving its early locomotive classes names from antiquity.

By 1845 the GWR's goods traffic had grown substantially since the Hercules Class of 1838–40, and Gooch specified the Pyracmon Class with improved boiler proportions and cylinder dimensions to handle the heavier trains the railway was now operating. The 0-6-0 layout gave maximum adhesion for goods haulage, and the broad gauge continued to offer the advantage of more stable running and more generous boiler dimensions than standard-gauge practice could provide at the same period.

The Pyracmon Class worked GWR broad-gauge goods services through the late 1840s and 1850s, supplementing and eventually replacing the earlier Hercules Class on the main goods workings. All were withdrawn as the fleet was progressively modernised and the gauge conversion approached. None was preserved.