The Bristol and Exeter Railway locomotives worked trains on the Bristol and Exeter Railway from 1 May 1849 until the railway was amalgamated with the Great Western Railway on 1 January 1876.
The Great Western Railway had leased the Bristol and Exeter Railway from its opening and provided the locomotives up until 1849.
The Bristol and Exeter Railway in turn provided the broad gauge locomotive power on most of the railways with which it had junctions: Bristol and Portishead Port and Pier Railway Somerset Central Railway West Somerset Railway and Minehead Railway Devon and Somerset Railway Exeter and Crediton Railway
Engineering
The railway established workshops at Bristol Temple Meads railway station in September 1854, the site later being known as Bath Road. Engine sheds were provided at major stations and on some branches including at Taunton railway station and Exeter St Davids railway station.
The engineer was Charles Hutton Gregory until May 1850, when James Pearson was appointed as Locomotive Engineer. He designed several classes of tank engines, including large 4-2-4T locomotives.
Locomotive types
Broad gauge
1849 4-2-2 locomotives – 20 passenger locomotives
1849 0-6-0 locomotives – 12 goods locomotives
1849 Fairfield – a steam railmotor
1851 2-2-2T locomotives – 7 small tank locomotives
1854 4-2-4T locomotives – 8 locomotives with 9 feet wheels
1855 4-4-0ST locomotives – 26 saddle tank locomotives
1856 0-6-0 locomotives – 6 goods locomotives
1859 4-2-4T replacements – 2 locomotives with 7 feet 6-inch wheels
1866 0-6-0ST locomotives – 2 small tank locomotives
1868 4-2-4T renewals – 4 locomotives with 8 feet 10-inch wheels
1870 2-4-0 locomotives – 10 passenger locomotives
1872 0-4-0T locomotives – 2 small well tank locomotives
1872 0-6-0 locomotives – 14 Swindon Class goods locomotives purchased from the Great Western Railway 1874 2-4-0 locomotives – 3 convertible passenger locomotives 1874 no. 110 – a small tank engine, originally built for the South Wales Mineral Railway 1874 0-6-0T no. 111
Standard gauge
The Bristol and Exeter Railway operated 28 standard gauge locomotives, all of which became GWR property on 1 January 1876. 0-6-0 – 6 built 1867–68: B&E nos. 77–82; GWR nos. 1360–5 Five of these spent a short while between 1870/71 and 1875 working as broad gauge locomotives. 2-4-2T – 2 built 1868: B&E nos. 83–84; GWR nos. 1353–4 2-4-0 – 3 built 1874–75: B&E nos. 3, 1, 16; GWR nos. 1355–7 0-6-0T – 2 built 1874–75: B&E nos. 114–115; GWR nos. 1376–7 0-4-0T – 3 built 1875: B&E nos. 93–95; GWR nos. 1378–80 0-6-0 – 10 built 1875: B&E nos. 116–125; GWR nos. 1366–75 2-4-0T – 2 built 1876: B&E nos. 30, 33; GWR nos. 1358–9
Narrow gauge
The Bristol and Exeter Railway built two 0-4-0WT locomotives in 1874/75 at Bristol – numbers 112 and 113 – for working the 3 feet gauge lines in its ballast quarry at Westleigh, Devon to the main line at . They were renumbered 1381/2 when acquired by the GWR, and following the conversion of the line to standard gauge in 1898, were sold in 1899.