GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line

Birmingham Snow Hill Station: gwrbsh1786

Great Western Railway 68xx (Grange) class 4-6-0 No 6832 'Brockton Grange' on a down train at the north end of Snow Hill Station on 20th February 1939. The first carriage (No 7733) with its moulded panels and chocolate and cream livery, is a fifty-six foot long, ganged corridor 'toplight' brake-composite coach (diagram E87), which was one of six built in February 1910 under lot 1169. The coach accommodation was two first class compartments, four third class compartments and a guard's compartment.

No 6832 was built in August 1937 at Swindon Works as part of lot 308. Virtually identical to the 'Hall' class 4-6-0, but with slightly smaller (five foot, eight inch) coupled wheels reused from withdrawn Churchward 43xx 2-6-0 locomotives. Note the use of smaller wheel arrangement required the platform to be raised over the cylinders. Originally it was intended to renew all three hundred 2-6-0 locomotives, either as 'Grange' or 'Manor' locomotives, but the war intervened and only eighty Grange and twenty Manor locomotives were constructed. The boiler operated at 225 lb pressure, which generated a tractive effort at 85% of 28,875 lb placing the locomotive in power group D. The maximum axle weight was 18 tons, 8 cwt which restricted the locomotive to main lines and a few branches (route colour – Red). No 6832 was initially allocated to Tyseley shed (TYS), but prior to nationalisation in December 1947 was known to have been allocated to Banbury shed (BAN). No 6832 was withdrawn from Neath shed (87A) in South Wales in January 1964.

Robert Ferris

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