The Book of the Granges

The second rank of Great Western motive power - the mixed traffic engines if you like was - for years made up of the humble mogul, but this began to come to an end with the widespread use of the new Hall 4-6-0s. The Halls were Saints with wheels reduced from 6ft 8½in to 6ft but most proposals on the GWR went back decades and as far back as the turn of the century, years before even the Halls appeared, a version with even smaller wheels had been mooted. In the 1930s Collett decided to use some of the parts of older 2-6-0s, such as wheels, coupling rods and cab steps, in a class of 80 'different Halls' - a new class called the Granges because of their 5ft 8in driving wheel diameter. The Granges and their smaller brethren, the Manors, were announced at the same time, as 'the engines replacing the 2-6-0s'.