service_retirement gwr 2800 class
The Western Region was a region of British Railways from ___MASK78___ . The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right on completion of the ' Organising for Quality ' initiative on 6th April ___MASK30___ . The Region consisted principally of ex - Great Western Railway lines , minus certain lines west of Birmingham , which were transferred to the London Midland Region in 1963 and with the addition of all former Southern Railway routes west of Exeter , which were subsequently rationalised . The Great Western Railway ( GWR ) 2800 Class is a class of steam locomotive . Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain . It is bordered by England to the east , the Irish Sea to the north and west , and the Bristol Channel to the south . It had a population in ___MASK48___ of 3 , 063 , 456 and has a total area of . Wales has over of coastline and is largely mountainous , with its higher peaks in the north and central areas , including Snowdon , its highest summit . The country lies within the north temperate zone and has a changeable , maritime climate . British Railways ( BR ), which from ___MASK16___ traded as British Rail , was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997 . It was formed from the nationalisation of the " Big Four " British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail , in stages between 1994 and 1997 . Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commission , it became an independent statutory corporation in 1962 : the British Railways Board . The Great Western Railway ( GWR ) was a British railway company that linked London with The Midlands , the south - west and west of England and most of Wales . It was founded in 1833 , received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran its first trains in ___MASK27___ . It was engineered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel , who chose a broad gauge of -- later slightly widened to -- but , from 1854 , a series of amalgamations saw it also operate standard - gauge trains ; the last broad - gauge services were operated in ___MASK45___ . The GWR was the only company to keep its identity through the Railways Act ___MASK1___ , which amalgamated it with the remaining independent railways within its territory , and it was finally merged at the end of 1947 when it was nationalised and became the Western Region of British Railways . The Railways Act ___MASK1___ ( c . 55 ), also known as the Grouping Act , was an Act of Parliament enacted by the British government of David Lloyd George intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country ' s 120 railway companies , move the railways away from internal competition , and to retain some of the benefits which the country had derived from a Government - controlled railway during and after the Great War of 1914 - 1918 . The provisions of the Act took effect from the start of 1923 .