AMT 1073 125 Cobra Racing Team – Metro Hobbies
In 1903, George Churchward, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Western Railway, embarked upon his locomotive improvement scheme with three types of 'standard' class engines, of which his 2-6-2T design was destined to become probably the GWR's most useful locomotive, lasting in traffic until the last month of Western Region steam operations in December 1965. The Class prototype, No. 99, spent two years working across the GWR system and the lessons learnt from its performance were incorporated into the thirty-nine production locomotives of the 3100 Class, introduced during 19051906. At eighteen tons, they were designated as red route engines, initially being able to cover 42% of the GWR network. In 1927 experiments were undertaken to reduce the weight distribution of the class leading to the locomotives gaining blue route clearance and being renumbered in the 5111-5149 range, changing the class