GWR Pannier 1501
1501 in service
1501 is the only surviving example of a GWRGreat Western Railway 1500 class 0-6-0PT shunting engine. Although a GWRGreat Western Railway design, 1501 was built at Swindon by the Western Region of British Railways in 1949, two years after nationalisation. The class was classified as 4FThe British Railways system of classifying steam locomotives by power using a number from 0, least powerful, to 9, most powerful, followed by either F for freight, P for Passenger or MT for Mixed Traffic. by BRBritish Rail or British Railways. Unlike the SVRSevern Valley Railway’s other panniers, 1501 has outside cylinders.
1501’s working life was spent at Southall, hauling long rakes of empty coaching stock in and out of Paddington Station. It was withdrawn from service by BRBritish Rail or British Railways in January 1961 after a working life of just 11 years 5 months, and was one of three sold to the National Coal Board for use at Coventry Colliery.
1501 in preservation
1501 came to the SVRSevern Valley Railway from the NCBNational Coal Board in November 1970. The other two NCBNational Coal Board locos (1502 and 1509) were used as a source of parts for restoring 1501; the remains were then scrapped.
In service on the SVRSevern Valley Railway, 1501 has proved a powerful locomotive for its size, acquiring the nickname “the raging bull”. The locomotive is owned by the 15xx Pannier Trust.
