Rhondda & Swansea Bay 0-6-2 Locomotives in Great_Britain

Class 15 (Locobase 10335)

Data from "Rhondda & Swansea Bay Ry," The Locomotive Magazine, Vol VIII (13 June 1903), p. 405.

The R & SB was built in Wales to serve the coal fields of the Rhondda Valley and link them with the shoreside town of Swansea. Altogether, about 20 miles of railway was built through mountainous terrain offering several stretches of truly challenging grades and the the nearly 2-mile long Rhondda Tunnel, which would be the longest railway tunnel to be built in Wales.

Challenging as well was the opposition to the project, particularly from the Taff Vale Railway, from the time it was proposed in 1882. This forced changes in the intended route and much greater capital outlay, which delayed the railway's opening and pushed its break-even point much farther into the future. Indeed, the Rhondda's operation fell to the Great Western in 1907, which absorbed it altogether under the Grouping scheme in 1922.

At the heart of the R & SB's traffic demand was coal movement. Thus, it isn't surprising that of the 15 locomotives that shared the same basic dimensions, a dozen would have 3 axles for adhesion. Otherwise, this class and the three passenger tanks shown in Locobase 10336 were essentially identical.

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Class unknown (Locobase 10337)

Data from "Rhondda & Swansea Bay Ry," The Locomotive Magazine, Vol VIII (13 June 1903), p. 405-406.

Compared to the dozen radial tanks that immediately preceded them on the R & SB, this pair had larger boilers and larger cylinders, which made up for the slightly taller drivers the cylinders supplied with power.