Great Western Railway #6000 King George V - "Portrait Of A King"

Built in 1927, the Great Western Railway (GWR) 6000 Class (King Class) were a 4-6-0 type of locomotive designed for passenger service. Aside from single pacific type unit built in 1908 (The Great Bear), the King Class locomotives were the largest locomotives built by the GWR. They were named after the kings of the United Kingdom / England. Designed by by Chief Mechanical Engineer C. B. Collett the locomotives featured four cylinders - 2 outboard and 2 inboard. The inboard cylinders completely occupied the space so the bearings of the lead wheels were relocated to the outside of the wheels. This gave the lead truck of the King Class their unique appearance.  To increase the tractive effort the driving wheels diameter was set at 78" and the first six locomotives to be built had their cylinders bored out to 16.25-inch. This provided an initial tractive effort of 40,300 lbf.  Operational experience later showed trouble with the loading gauge clearance of the outer cylinders. They we