acquired on 1 January 1923. Swansea Harbour Trust 14 locomotives acquired on 1 July 1923. Taff Vale Railway The Taff Vale Railway and its 275 locomotives were acquired on 1 January 1922. Locomotives of amalgamated companies (1925 - 1947) Corris Railway narrow gauge locomotives: No. 3 0-4-2 ST No. 4 0-4-2 ST Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Railway Two locomotives were transferred to the Great Western Railway when Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Railway closed in 1940: GWR No.5 ex-LB&SCR A1 Class 0-6-0T "Portishead" GWR No.6 ex-LB&SCR A1 Class 0-6-0T Ystalyfera Tin Works GWR No.1 Peckett and Sons 0-4-0ST "Hercules" 1948 and after On 1 January 1948 all existing GWR locomotives became the property of the new British Railways (BR); unlike other companies stock, all the steam locomotives continued to carry their GWR numbers. BR continued to build GWR designs (the 1000, 1500, 1600, 4073 and 6959 classes in particular) for a while. When the first BR Standard steam locomotives started to arrive, they were often compared unfavourably to ex-GWR locos, and the Western Region decided to take forward experiments with diesel-hydraulic and gas turbine locomotives. Withdrawal of ex-GWR locomotives took place earlier than for the other 'Big Four' companies as the Western Region took the decision to be the first to end steam traction. A handful of locomotives that had been transferred to other regions did survive for longer however. Ironically, because the Barry scrapyard received large numbers of ex-GWR locomotives, proportionately more survive today in preservation than the locomotives of the other companies. Named locomotives Most express passenger locomotives carried distinctive names, generally following themes such as kings (the 6000 class), cities (3700 class), counties (3800 class, later the 1000 class), castles (4073 class), and halls (4900 class). This tradition dated back to the first locomotives delivered to the railway, for all broad gauge locomotives initially were identified only by names, numbers first appearing on the standard gauge locomotives acquired with the northern companies that became part of the GWR in 1862. Several locomotives were honoured with the name Great Western. The first was an Iron Duke class broad gauge locomotive built in 1846, the first locomotive entirely constructed at the company's Swindon locomotive works. This was withdrawn in 1870, but in 1888 a modernised version of the same class was built and given the same name; this was withdrawn just four years later when the broad gauge was taken