GWR 4-6-0 Castle

5080 Defiant

Built : Swindon May 1939

Original Name : Ogmore Castle

Renamed : 1941

Withdrawn : April 1963

Restored & Mainline Certified : June 1988

Current : Static display at Quainton Road

 

 

Images : click on an image to enlarge

5080 Defiant is a member of the Great Western Castle Class, and along with a number of sister engines was named after a World War II aeroplane in 1941.

Originally named Ogmore Castle, No.5080 was completed at Swindon in May 1939 and was first allocated to Old Oak Common shed for main line express work to Birmingham and the West Country. After transfer to Cardiff (Canton), the engine was renamed Defiant in January 1941 commemorating one of the many types of aircraft which had taken part in the Battle of Britain. The loco hauled many of the main line expresses such as the Red Dragon; Pembroke Coast Express and South Wales Pullman before the arrival of Britannia class Pacifics on the Western Region. By 1959 it had moved to Carmarthen staying there until its final move to Llanelli in May 1961, working to the last on express trains.

Withdrawn from service in April 1963, No.5080 spent eleven years in Barry scrapyard before being purchased by the Birmingham Railway Museum Trust. At the end of 1985, an intensive programme of restoration began to transform Defiant into a working locomotive once again: capable of hauling main line trains at express speeds over BR tracks.

5080 returned to the main line on 11th June 1988, bearing the familiar Red Dragon headboard, hauling a train from Tyseley to Didcot.

Since then, 5080 has visited numerous preserved railways including the Gloucestershire & Warwickshire Railway, Great Central Railway, and even the Mid Hants Railway, doing so in 1995. Following the introduction of the popular Drive-A-Loco footplate experience course, 5080 was the mainstay mainline engine used until withdrawn in 1997 for overhaul.

5080 Defiant is currently on static display in the 'Oxford' Rewley Road LMS Station rebuilt at Buckinghamshire Railway Centre, Quainton.