Serving God in the heart of our community since 1881

St Andrew's Church, Taunton

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The Railway Parish

St. Andrew's was built to serve the rapidly expanding area of Taunton which served the newly arrived Great Western Railway, and soon became known as "The Railway Parish".

Above: the east end of Taunton Station in Broad Gauge days, probably about 1885-1887. The spire of St Andrew's church is  visible in the background. This picture is taken from a publication entitled "Taunton in the 1880's" published by The Broad Gauge Society and Bob Youlden 2001, and has been kindly supplied by Simon Bowditch.

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Above: No. 2913 Saint Andrew stands in the Parish of St. Andrew at the Up relief platform, with a train for Bristol in 1947. The picture was taken by Bob Franklin, and is reproduced courtesy of the Simon Bowditch collection.

Steam train enthusiasts may be interested to know the following:

• Built August 1907.

• First shed allocation Old Oak Common.

• Half-cone boiler and superheater fitted October 1909.

• Reverted to full-cone boiler April 1911.

• Last shed allocation Swindon.

• Withdrawn May 1948.

The GWR Class 2900 4-6-0 Saint class of locomotives were designed by George J Churchward (1857 - 1933.) 77 of them were built between 1902 and 1913.

George Churchward was the son of a Devon farmer, he was a pupil of John Wright, South Devon Railway, and in 1873-77 he was under William Dean at Swindon, Great Western Railway. He was the assistant to the Swindon carriage works manager 1882-85, when he worked on an improved vacuum brake system, and improved axle bearings to minimize overhauls and delays. He was made carriage works manager in 1885 and in 1895 locomotive works manager.

From 1897 he was also the main assistant to Dean, whom he succeeded as Chief Mechanical Engineer in 1902. His Saint Class 4-6-0s, which were smooth runners at speed, could sometimes perform better in hard pulling than the later Stars with Walschaerts valve gear.

Thanks to 'RailUK' and 'Greatwestern.org' for the information
 

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