Talk:GWR 111 The Great Bear

Surviving Artifacts

I seem to remember seeing the valve gear/motion from The Great Bear (later Viscount Churchill) on display at the previous Swindon Museum many years ago (before it moved to STEAM). If so does anyone know what happened to it? Also have the name/numberplates also not survived? Andywebby (talk) 16:59, 29 April 2009 (UTC)

One nameplate appears to be at the NRM. You may have seen the wooden mockup of the scissors valvegear from No. 40, which was at the museum. Ning-ning (talk) 08:42, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

It's unlikely that the valve gear/motion from The Great Bear was preserved. As built, the cylinders and motion (and several other items) were identical to those of the Star class (except no. 40, later 4000, as noted above), and therefore also identical to the components used on the Castle class. Thus, when no. 111 was rebuilt as a Castle in 1924, most (if not all) of the valve gear components would have been re-used; but in time, as they wore out, they would have been replaced with new components, and few originals would have been left by the time of withdrawal in 1953. Since they were standard parts, some may have been reconditioned and fitted to other Castles. --Redrose64 (talk) 13:44, 26 April 2012 (UTC)