User:8474tim/GWR 439 Class

The 439 Class, nicknamed the Bicycle class because of its unusual appearance, was a series of six 2-4-0 mixed-traffic engines designed by Joseph Armstrong'for the Great Western Railway, and built at Swindon Works in 1868.

The locomotives
Numbered in the series 439-444, the the running plate pf these locomotives was raised, without splashers, above each of the large (6'1") driving wheels, rather giving the impression of bicycle mudguards. The "Bicycles" worked at Northern Division sheds, running between Wolverhampton and Chester. Most of the class was renewed at Wolverhampton under George Armstrong in 1885/6; at first the renewals also ran on the same routes as their predecessors, though later some were transferred further south.