Star Class Steam Engines

Stephenson's "North Star" Steam Engine, 1837
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Ironically, and fortunately for the Great Western, Daniel Gooch the Chef locomotive engineer Brunel selected proved to be one of the few who could surpass Brunel in an area of engineering.

Having worked for Stephenson since he was in his teens, Gooch was already an experienced engineer when Brunel hired him, aged twenty-one, as the main engineer. He persuaded Brunel to buy the two engines the North Star and Morning Star and convert them to Broad Gauge. Some sources suggest Gooch had worked on the orginal designs for the North Star itself before joining the GWR, which was how he knew the engines were available.

Once the engines were running, problems became apparent. The engines had been built for narrower gauges and converted; The Morning Star had actually been built for the New Orleans rail company, who then did not take delivery.

This meant that, among other issues, the boilers were undersized for the demands of broad gauge. The engines could scarely pull sixteen tons at forty miles an hour, a far cry from the speed that broad gauge could support.

Brunel and Gooch went to work on the North Star. The engine was stripped down and improvements made including widening the blast-pipe. The performance improvements they made increased the load to forty tons at forty miles an hour, while reducing the fuel used by more than half. The engine pulled the inaugural train for the Great Western Railway in 1838.