GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line

Birmingham Snow Hill Station: gwrbsh2484

Great Western Railway 4-2-2 3031 (Achilles) class No 3027 ‘Worcester’ at Snow Hill Station circa 1905. This photograph appeared in the Locomotive News and Railways Notes Journal published on 10th July 1921 and was accompanied by the following paragraph:

‘In conclusion, readers will doubtless be pleased to see another of Mr T Guest’s fine photographs reproduced, viz GWR No 3027 ‘Worcester’. This photograph was taken with a Klito quarter plate camera and the paper used is Selio POP, with separate gold toning and fixing baths. It was taken many years ago, and shows Birmingham (Snow Hill) station before being rebuilt. No 3027 Worcester is an extremely interesting engine and the following brief resume will appeal to GWR enthusiasts. Built at Swindon in August 1801 (works No 1267) as a 2-2-2 broad gauge (convertible) engine with 7 foot 8 inch driving wheels and 20 inch x 24 inch cylinders and ‘rim splashers’ and inside bearings to all wheels; converted to standard gauge 2-2-2 in 1892 with outside bearings; named ‘Thames’ in 1893; cylinder diameter reduced to 19 inches and leading axle replaced by bogie in July 1895; large water scoop tender supplied in 1895; renamed ‘Worcester’ in 1896, when the engines of the No 69 class were named after rivers (No 74 becoming ‘Thames’); rebuilt with ‘camel’ type boiler in 1900, as illustrated; while a few years prior to being cut up again sported a copper-capped funnel and domed boiler as fitted to No 3074. When first turned out with the camel type boiler the splashers bore the Company’s embossed coat-of-arms and also the arms of London and Bristol – but Mr Guest’s photograph shows the engine with the Company’s coat-of-arms (only) painted on the splasher. ‘Worcester’ was employed on the Birmingham expresses from about 1904 till July 1914, when it was withdrawn from service and cut up.

Robert Ferris

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