Great Western Railway class 6800 “Grange”

As early as in 1901, Churchward's program of standard locomotives for the GWR included a two-cylinder 4-6-0 mixed traffic class. For the time being, this was not built and ten years later, the 2-6-0 class 4300 was built for similar duties. Only Collett actually built the mixed-traffic 4-6-0s, starting with the Hall class in 1924. While this had driving wheels with a diameter of six feet, the Grange class shown here had a diameter of only five feet and eight inches to increase pulling power, with the cylinder dimensions remaining the same.

To replace the class 4300, a total of 80 were built between 1936 and 1939 and named after granges in the GWR area. Hence the wheels, valve motions and tenders of withdrawn class 4300 locomotives were re-used. Since the axle load of the Grange class was somewhat higher than that of the 4300, they could not be used on all lines. This prompted Collett to build the Manor class as a lighter variant. All Grange class locomotives were withdrawn and scrapped between 1960 and 1965. In 1998, construction of No. 6880 “Betton Grange” was started. It was steamed up for the first time on April 11, 2024.