GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line

Henley in Arden - Original Station: gwrha2769

Henley-in-Arden's Goods Junction ground frame: Trains for the goods yard stopped at the passenger station's down platform where the guard would collect the the train staff (which was round in shape and coloured red) which provided the authority to access the branch. The train would then be propelled down the track on the right of the photo, into the dead-ended headshunt (behind the camera). The guard would use a key on the the train staff to unlock the levers in the ground frame (right of photo) to change the points for the train to draw ahead into the goods yard (a train can be seen doing this, in 1930, in image 'gwrha1397'), as far as the first set of points. Here the wagon brakes would be pinned down and loco detached (the crew in image 'gwrha1427' are doing just this). Then the loco would run forward into one siding, the wagon brakes would be released - there was a slight down gradient - and they would roll past the locomotive, into an adjacent siding (see image 'gwrha1401'). The locomotive was then free to do its shunting. Until about the early 1950s, there had been a run round loop in the goods yard, so this gravity working would not then have been necessary. The yard had a capacity of approximately 40 wagons, although the maximum permitted length of trains on the branch was loco, 25 waons and brake van.

Richard Maund

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