Although primarily designed for fast freight, the class also sometimes hauled passenger trains, notably heavy holiday expresses in the summer months.

Although they were mechanically successful locomotives, their large size severely restricted their route availability and so no more examples were built.

[8] Later, Collett would produce the Grange Class which was exactly as the traffic department had originally envisaged: a 4-6-0 with Standard No.

In later years they were often used on heavy relief passenger services to the West of England during the summer months.

[10][better source needed] As a result of their limited usefulness, the mileages achieved by the class were not exceptional, with No.

However, the Great Western Society 4709 Group made the decision to create the next locomotive in the sequence, GWR 4709.

Supported via a GWS sub-group; the plan was to build it using a mixture of new parts and others recycled from former Barry scrapyard locomotives: The plates for the new frames were cut and machined in 2012.