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GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Harbury Cutting and Tunnel: gwrhc3916

An unidentified Great Western Railway 2-6-2T 31xx class prairie tank locomotive running bunker first with an up suburban passenger service from Leamington Spa in Whitnash Cutting

An unidentified Great Western Railway 2-6-2T 31xx class prairie tank locomotive running bunker first with an up suburban passenger service from Leamington Spa in Whitnash Cutting. The photograph is undated, but believed to be from the mid 1920’s.

Forty 31xx class prairie tank locomotives were built at Swindon Works in four lots. The prototype No 99 was built in September 1903, with the remainder built in 1905 and early 1906. By then larger capacity (2,000 gallon) sloping front, side tanks had been introduced, which increased the maximum axle weight to 18tons, 4 cwt. This however restricted the locomotives to main lines and a few branch lines (Route Colour – Red). An early modification was the front struts, which were introduced in 1909 to support front of the frames during banking duties. From 1919, the coal bunker was extended to increase capacity by 18cwt and a plain fender was added to the top. That year the Great Western Railway standardised boiler pressures and this was increased from 195lbs to 200lbs giving a tractive effort at 85% of 24,300lb (Power Group – C). The high power of these locomotives coupled with their fast acceleration proved particularly useful on heavy suburban passenger services where they were required to frequently start from stations. After 1927, the weight distribution of the 31xx class locomotives was altered to reduce the maximum axle weight to 17tons, 12cwt. This increased their route availability (Route Colour – Blue) and the modified locomotives were renumbered as 51xx class locomotives, when they re-entered service. See 'Engine Map' for more details of the Great Western Railway’s Route availability and Power classification. Although many of these locomotives were allocated to Birmingham Division in the 1930’s after the weight redistribution, most of the 31xx class locomotives had initially been allocated to South Wales’ sheds. The following list details the four 31xx class locomotives which were allocated to either Tyseley (TYS) or Leamington (LMTN) sheds in the mid 1920’s:

No 3138 built at Swindon Works in February 1906 as part of lot 159 was allocated to:

  • Tyseley Shed from December 1923 to November 1925
  • Weight redistributed August 1928 and renumbered No 5138

No 3142 built at Swindon Works in March 1906 as part of lot 159 was allocated to:

  • Tyseley Shed from November 1926 to August 1926
  • Leamington Shed from August 1926 to October 1928
  • Tyseley Shed from October 1928 to May 1929
  • Leamington Shed from May 1929 to July 1929
  • Weight redistributed July 1929 and renumbered No 5142

No 3143 built at Swindon Works in March 1906 as part of lot 159 was allocated to:

  • Tyseley Shed from February 1924 to March 1924
  • Leamington from July 1925 to September 1925
  • Weight redistributed June 1929 and renumbered No 5143

No 3147 built at Swindon Works in March 1906 as part of lot 159 was allocated to:

  • Leamington Shed from February 1926 to May 1926
  • Tyseley Shed from May 1926 to June 1926
  • Leamington Shed from June 1926 to November 1928
  • Weight redistributed November 1928 and renumbered No 5147

The coach behind the locomotive is a fifty-eight foot, two inch long, non-corridor toplight brake, with six third class compartments, a guard’s compartment and luggage area. The diagram is D86 (or possibly D91). The difference between these two diagrams was that the diagram D86 coach was fitted with a close couple arrangement at the compartment end, which was also bow ended with the end compartment’s seats curved to fit this bow. For more details see 'gwrms1787'. Coach sets comprising; two composite coaches (E124 / E125), topped and tailed by a pair of these brake third coaches (D86 / D91) were allocated to suburban services in; London, Birmingham, Plymouth and Exeter Divisions. Seven of these four coach sets were allocated to Birmingham Division where they were termed ‘B’ sets. The table gives details of all these Brake Third coaches:

Lot No Diagram Completion Date Quantity Running Numbers
1335 D86 April 1925 Twenty-six 4652 to 4677
1335 D91 April 1925 Twenty-eight 4678 to 4705

Robert Ferris

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