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GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line

Birmingham Snow Hill - Pre-grouping locomotives: gwrbsh1194

GWR 4-4-0 County class No 3828 'County of Hereford' is seen arriving at Platform 7 and 8 whilst working an up express service to London

GWR 4-4-0 County class No 3828 'County of Hereford' is seen arriving at Platform 7 and 8 whilst working an up express service to London in early 1914. Built at Swindon works in January 1912 as one of the last batch of Counties to be built, No 3828 was to remain in service until March 1933 when it was withdrawn from Oxford shed to be scrapped at 1933 Swindon works. Know to railwaymen as 'Churchward's rough riders', the 'County' class of locomotives looked very much like a shortened version of the 'Saint' class. The locomotive seen above has been given the name of the very county that had initiated Churchward to design the class.

The reason for the design was to work the cross country services on the Shrewsbury to Hereford line, a line which was jointly owned by the GWR and the London and North Western Railway. The LNWR refused to allow 4-6-0 locomotives on this line and so Churchward designed an engine with enough power in reserve should the need arise for it's use on other lines, but as Sir William Stanier noted that 'Churchward was not going to be instructed by Webb, the Locomotive Superintendent of the LNWR, and designed an engine that had plenty of power to run the service but which had a front end too powerful for the wheelbase'. Courtesy of the Great Western Archive.

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