GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line

Birmingham Snow Hill - Grouping Period Locomotives: gwrbsh3053

Great Western Railway 4-6-0 40xx (Star) class No 4064 ‘Reading Abbey’ with an up express denoted by the class A lamp headcode (see 'Headcodes' for more information), is seen adjacent to Platform No 8, just short of the scissors crossings in the middle of Birmingham Snow Hill Station in 1934.

The 40xx class was the culmination of express passenger locomotive development by the Great Western Railway's Chief Mechanical Engineer - George Churchward. It incorporated the best of French and American design practice with a four cylinder simple arrangement with long valve travel. This combined with his 225 psi Standard No 1 boiler produced a superb free-running locomotive ideal for non-stop express running. The 40xx class had a tractive effort at 85% of 25,090lb (Power Group – D) and a maximum axle weight of 19tons, 16cwt which restricted them to main lines and a few branch lines (Route colour – Red). For more information on the Great Western Railway’s locomotive classification system see 'Engine Map'. Initially used on principle express routes following the introduction of the more powerful four cylinder ‘Castle’ class locomotives, the 40xx class were gradually redeployed on to secondary express routes. No 4064 was built in December 1922 at Swindon Works as part of lot 217. This was the final batch of twelve Stars which were all named after Abbeys. Originally this locomotive was allocated to Old Oak Common shed (PDN) outside Paddington. At the start of 1934, No 4064 was known to have been allocated to Shrewsbury shed (SLP). No 4064 was finally withdrawn from Bath Road shed (BRD) in Bristol during February 1937.

The tender (number 2351) is a 3,500 gallon Collett flush bottom pattern of lot A110. These were built between December 1921 and April 1922 and had 7ton of coal capacity. Behind the tender is an externally framed ventilated milk van (telegraphic code SIPHON G) to diagram O11. These vans were fifty feet long with shallow upper louvres along their full length and had four double doors on each side and end gangways. They had a low three centre roof profile. They were classified as passenger stock; fitted with vacuum brakes and could travel at express speeds. On the Great Western Railway, passenger stock were called ‘Brown’ vehicles as they were painted brown with yellow ochre lettering. Initially they were used for carrying milk churns, but they proved to be very versatile and as more milk was transported in six wheeled milk tanks, they were also used to carry parcels and newspaper traffic. The following table details the 129 outside framed Siphon G ventilated milk vans built by the Great Western Railway:

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 'AEV410'.

Robert Ferris

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