GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line

Birmingham Snow Hill - Grouping Period Locomotives: gwrbsh3051

Great Western Railway 4-6-0 49xx (Hall) class No 4975 ‘Umberslade Hall’ with a class A headcode standing alone on the up line at Snow Hill in 1934.

The Great Western Railway Hall class proved to be a most successful mixed traffic locomotive and the class eventually totalled 330 locomotives built between 1928 and 1950. They had a standard No 1 boiler operating at 225 lb and developing a tractive effort at 85% of 27,275 lbs (Power Group D). The maximum axle weight was 18 tons, 19 cwt, which limited the locomotives to main lines and a few branch lines (Route Classification Red), but they found both freight and express passenger work in abundance. For more information about locomotive classification on the Great Western Railway see 'Route Map'. No 4975 was built in February 1930 at Swindon Works as part of lot 254 and was initially allocated to Penzance Shed (PZ). The locomotive was allocated to several other West Country sheds, before being allocated to Old Oak Common Shed (PDN) outside Paddington in December 1932. The locomotive histories indicate that in early 1934 No 4975 was at Swindon Works for a general overhaul and boiler change, but then operated from Swindon (SDN) running 89,561 miles before the next boiler change in December 1935. No 4975 was withdrawn from Oxford Shed (81F) in September 1963 having travelled 1,298,925 miles and sold for disposal to Messrs Coopers Ltd at Swindon in December 1963.

Alongside the locomotive is a rake of clerestory coaches. The running number of the closest one has 74— as the first two digits. It is believed that this is a fifty-five foot long, mainline general service composite corridor coach, built to one of the diagrams listed in the table below:

a. The twenty five diagram E64/E65 and ten diagram E68/E69 coaches were each built with; four first class compartments, two second class compartments and four toilets. The toilets were identically sized, but one pair was allocated to each class and one of each pair designated for ‘ladies only’. The two ‘ladies only’ toilets were adjacent to each other, positioned towards the centre of the coach. This extravagance was later discontinued and around 1910 these two adjacent toilets were converted to provide an additional second class compartment, while leaving a toilet at each end of the coach. The final arrangement was four first class compartments, three second class compartments and two toilets.

b. The sixteen diagram E66/E70 coaches were built with; three first class compartments, three second class compartments and four toilets similarly arranged as above. These were also modified around 1910 to create an additional second class compartment from the two ‘ladies only’ toilets. The final arrangement was three first class compartments, four second class compartments and two toilets.

c. The thirty-six diagram E73 coaches were built with three first class compartments, four second class compartments and a toilet at each end. The diagram E73’s toilets were 3¼ inches larger than those in previous diagrams.

In 1907 the Great Western Railway introduced a new numbering scheme for their coach stock to indicate the type of coach:

• Third class coaches retained their existing numbers
• Second class coaches had 5000 added to their number
• Composite coaches had 6000 added to their number
• First class coaches had 8000 added to their number
• Saloons were renumbered in the 90xx, 91xx, 92xx and 93xx series
• Sleeper coaches were renumbered in the 90xx series Dinning coaches were renumbered in the 95xx series

During 1910 the Great Western Railway abolished 2nd class accommodation and all existing 2nd class compartments were re-designated as 3rd class compartments.

This photograph is displayed courtesy of the HMRS (Historical Model Railway Society) and copies can be ordered directly from them using the link HERE, quoting 'AEV430'.

Robert Ferris

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