The Queen Class was Joseph Armstrong

Joseph Armstrong (engineer)

Joseph Armstrong was a British locomotive engineer and the second locomotive superintendent of the Great Western Railway...

's last class of 2-2-2 express engine for the Great Western Railway

Great Western Railway

The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...

, larger than the Sir Daniel Class

GWR 378 Class

The GWR 378 Class was a class of 30 standard-gauge 2-2-2 steam locomotives on the Great Western Railway in Britain. They were introduced in 1866, and the class remained intact until 1898...

 of about a decade earlier. They worked express trains for almost 30 years, and were in effect the predecessors of the larger Singles

GWR 3031 Class

The Dean Single, 3031 Class, or Achilles Class was a type of steam locomotive built by the Great Western Railway between 1891 and 1899. They were designed by William Dean for passenger work...

 of William Dean.

The locomotives

The "Queens" started life as a single prototype, No.55 Queen herself, built at Swindon in 1873. A further 20 locomotives were constructed in 1875, numbered 999, 1000 and 1116-1133. No.999 was named Sir Alexander and sometimes the later series is referred to as the Sir Alexander Class, though in fact the locomotives were essentially the same as No.55. They all had 7'0" diameter driving wheels and 18 x 24 inch cylinders. The class's duties were the expresses on the London-Swindon-Gloucester and London-Wolverhampton routes. Naturally enough, No.55 became the principal GWR royal locomotive, carrying the royal coat of arms for royal journeys; though sometimes this decoration was applied to other, substitute engines.

As with many GWR lcomotives of the time, the individual members of the class were much modified in detail, at Wolverhampton as well as Swindon, with the addition of cabs, different chimneys and various types of boiler; some in their later years had Belpaire firebox

Belpaire firebox

The Belpaire firebox is a type of firebox used on steam locomotives. It was invented by Alfred Belpaire of Belgium. It has a greater surface area at the top of the firebox, improving heat transfer and steam production...

es, which gave a much more modern appearance. After 1900 the class was demoted to secondary duties in various parts of the system, and all were withdrawn between 1903 and 1914. All but a handful had a million miles to their credit at the time of withdrawal.

Names

Ten of the class carried names, as follows:

• 55 Queen
• 999 Sir Alexander
• 1118 Prince Christian
• 1119 Princess of Wales
• 1122 Beaconsfield
• 1123 Salisbury
• 1128 Duke of York
• 1129 Princess May
• 1130 Gooch (temporary name, c.1900)
• 1132 Prince of Wales