GWR Cathedral Class

The Great Western Railway (GWR) 8000 or Cathedral Class was a class of proposed 4-6-2 steam locomotive. This locomotive class would have been the GWR's second attempt at designing a 4-6-2 locomotive, following No. 111 The Great Bear.

Proposal
The proposal for the Cathedral Class was submitted by Frederick Hawksworth in 1941. It was designed for post-war rail traffic.

Design
The Cathedral Class would have featured similar features from other locomotives in the UK, such as having 4-cylinders, an all-new tender design from the Hall Class and 1000 County Class that would come years later, same pony truck from the King Class 4-6-0s, different trailing bogie design coming from the LMS Princess Royal Class 4-6-2 Pacifics and, the same body design from the LMS Princess Royal Class 4-6-2 Pacifics but designed with the smokebox from the GWR Star Class.

The locomotive was to have a boiler pressure of 250 psi. The locomotive's tractive effort was raised from 31,625 lbf on the Castle Class to 40,300 lbf on the Cathedral Class. The 6 ft driver diameter on the King Class was kept for the Cathedral Class.

In games

 * Caledonia Works made a model of the Cathedral Class for Train Simulator 2022, even writing their own history for the class.