1501, GWR 1500 Class

The sole surviving member of the GWR 1500 Class, a Hawksworth-designed 0-6-0 pannier tank ordered by the Great Western Railway but completed under British Railways at Swindon Works in 1949. Only ten engines were built (1500 to 1509); 1501 is the only one that survives.

The 1500 Class was a heavy shunting pannier with an unusual layout for a GWR tank engine: outside cylinders, Walschaerts valve gear, a short 12 ft 10 in wheelbase for tight curves, a Standard No. 10 taper boiler at 200 psi, and a BR power classification of 4F. The class was allocated to Old Oak Common and Southall for empty coaching stock and shunting work around Paddington.

1501 was withdrawn from British Railways early, in 1961, and sold with sister engines 1502 and 1509 to the National Coal Board for use at Coventry and Keresley Collieries. All three were bought by the Severn Valley Railway in 1970; 1502 and 1509 were stripped for spares and scrapped, and 1501 was restored as the sole survivor of the class.

Nicknamed "the raging bull" in preservation, 1501 has run roughly 100,000 miles on the Severn Valley Railway. Its boiler ticket expired on 8 January 2023 and it is currently stored awaiting overhaul.