GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line

Birmingham Snow Hill - British Railways Period Locomotives: gwrbsh1310

Ex-GWR 2-6-2T 61xx class No 6116 is seen running bunker first alongside Platform 7 waits at signals whilst on an up empty mineral train on 11th May 1961. Built at Swindon works to Lot 269 in September 1931 No 6116 remained in service until June 1965 when it was withdrawn from Cardiff Radyr shed to be scrapped in May 1966 by G Cohen of Morriston. The 61xx class were introduced in 1931 and were a straightforward development of the earlier 5101 Class which in turn was a development of the 1905 GWR 31xx class with little more than an increased boiler pressure of 225 psi to distinguish them from their ancestors. A total of seventy locomotives of the class were built, in two batches in 1931-1933 and 1935.

The class was specifically built for commuter services in the London area where they replaced the ageing GWR 2221 class on such services. The class lasted to the end of steam on the Western Region of British Railways in 1965, never straying far from their home turf. Typical duties were Paddington to Aylesbury via High Wycombe, and from the same terminus to Oxford, Windsor, Reading and Basingstoke. Throughout their working lives the class were mainly allocated to the following sheds: Old Oak Common, Southall, Slough, Reading and Aylesbury. In the early 1960s, the advent of the first generation Diesel Multiple Units made them semi-redundant though generally far from worn out. Their last few years saw them on more menial duties, as in the above photograph, until scrapping.

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