GWR Star Class (broad gauge)
The GWR Star Class (broad gauge) refers to the earliest locomotives ordered for the Great Western Railway, built in 1837–38 before Daniel Gooch had fully established his own locomotive design practice. These were not a coherent designed class in the modern sense but rather a group of locomotives procured from various outside manufacturers — including Robert Stephenson and Company, Tayleur & Co, and Sharp Roberts — to varying specifications, at a time when the GWR was urgently seeking locomotives for its imminent opening and Gooch had not yet produced his own designs.
The Star Class designation is retrospectively applied to a group of 2-2-2 broad-gauge locomotives including North Star, which was the most famous of the early GWR engines and the one that gave the group its name. North Star was originally built by Robert Stephenson & Co for the New Orleans Railway in the United States but, when that order fell through, was acquired by the GWR and entered service in November 1837. It was the most reliable of the early GWR fleet and hauled the inaugural passenger train on the GWR's first section — Paddington to Maidenhead — on 4 June 1838.
The early Star Class locomotives were a temporary solution to the GWR's opening needs rather than a standard type, and Gooch rapidly superseded them with his own designs — the Firefly and its successors — from 1840. North Star itself was withdrawn in 1871, and the GWR retained the frames for many years before unfortunately scrapping them in 1906. A working replica of North Star was built for the GWR centenary in 1925 and is now at the STEAM Museum in Swindon.
Design and development
When Brunel specified the Great Western Railway's 7 ft 0¼ in broad gauge in 1833, no broad-gauge locomotives existed. Robert Stephenson & Co. agreed to convert two 5 ft 6 in gauge engines originally built for the never-completed New Orleans Railway in the United States to GWR specification. These two engines — North Star and Morning Star — became the prototype Star class.
The Star was a Patentee-type 2-2-2 enlarged for the broad gauge: a single pair of 7 ft driving wheels behind the firebox, inside cylinders, leading and trailing carrying wheels. With the broad gauge giving generous clearances around the boiler and motion, the Stars were considerably larger than contemporary standard-gauge engines, and proved the worth of Brunel's gauge for high-speed passenger work. A further ten were ordered between 1838 and 1841.
Service and withdrawals
North Star opened the GWR on 4 June 1838 by hauling the first scheduled passenger train from Paddington to Maidenhead. The Stars worked the railway's first eight years of express services and were progressively rebuilt by Daniel Gooch as their boilers aged. Most were rebuilt as effectively new engines in the 1850s and worked into the 1860s and 1870s. North Star itself was finally withdrawn in 1871, after 33 years' service, and was preserved by the GWR as a heritage piece — but was scrapped in 1906 by Churchward, who needed the space at Swindon Works. A full-size sectioned replica was built at Swindon in 1925 and is now displayed at STEAM Museum, Swindon.
Identification features
Broad-gauge 2-2-2 with a single pair of 7 ft 0 in driving wheels, inside cylinders between the frames, copper-capped chimney, and the Stephenson sandwich frames typical of the period. The 1925 replica retains all the original visual character.
Notable locomotives
- North Star (1837, replica at STEAM Swindon)
- Morning Star, Evening Star, Dog Star, Polar Star, Red Star (1839–41, not preserved)
