I have a bit of a soft spot for all large tank locomotives and a number of classes of large tanks existed on the Southern Railway such as the H16 4-6-2T, W 2-6-4T, the Z class 0-8-0T that I featured in my

Talking Stock# 19 post here and the topic of this post the G16 4-8-0T. The H16 and W classes will I am sure be the subject of future posts.

The ex London and Southern Western (LSWR) Urie G16 class of four 4-8-0tanks were introduce in 1921, the same year as the larger H16 4-6-2T. The two classes shared many common parts such as boilers and fireboxes.

Having eight-coupled wheels of 5? 1? diameter, they were clearly intended mainly for hump shunting duties at Feltham yard and spent most of their lives to the shed there. Weighing in at 95 tons they were certainly heavy tanks and with a Tractive Effort of 34,000 were the most powerful locomotives on the LSWR. In common with the T14 4-6-0 ‘Paddleboxes’ and H16 class were the widest steam locomotives in Britain.

My model of the G16 makes the odd occasional appearance on Fisherton Sarum which must be a running in turn from Eastleigh works, as Salisbuty would have been a bit far for a trip working! It has been constructed from a Golden Arrow Products resin kit mounted on a modified Hornby 8F chassis. This is somewhat of a compromise as the G16s had an evenly spaced 5’1? driving wheels on 6? centres whereas the 8F has 4’8? drivers on unequal spacing.

This is an extract from my blog at www.grahammuz.com

The full post with additional information and further images can be read here.