GWR 3440 'City of Truro' takes water during the Glous Warks Railway Society's GWR 175 Cotswold Festival of Steam Event.
'City of Truro' needs little introduction although for the GWR 175 Event it carried an unfamiliar number and livery. The locomotive has just undergone a repaint to the livery it carried for most (if not all) of its GWR existence. When built in 1903, it was given the number 3440. It was equipped with slide valves and carried an un-superheated boiler but was rebuilt with a new Swindon standard No 4 superheated boiler in 1911. This resulted in a longer smokebox, top water feeds either side of the safety valve bonnet and a number of other detail differences. In the early part of the 20th century, the elaborate fully-lined-out Victorian livery with Indian red frames carried by express locomotives was disappearing in favour of a rather more plain, but nevertheless elegant, green unlined livery with black frames. In 1912, the number series was changed to 37xx and 'City of Truro' received its new number 3717. So it's appearance at the GWR175 is historically accurate for the engine in its current condition.