GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Handsworth & Smethwick: gwrhs1592

GWR 4-4-0 No 3809 'County Wexford' on an up Wolverhampton to the West of England service passing Handsworth Junction. Know to railwaymen as 'Churchwards rough riders', the 'County' class of locomotives looked very much like a shortened version of the 'Saint' class. The reason for the design was to work the cross country services on the Shrewsbury to Hereford line, a line which was jointly owned by the GWR and the London and North Western Railway. The LNWR refused to allow 4-6-0 locomotives on this line and so Churchward designed an engine with enough power in reserve should the need arise for it's use on other lines, but as Sir William Stanier noted that "Churchward was not going to be instructed by Webb, the Locomotive Superintendent of the LNWR, and designed an engine that had plenty of power to run the service but which had a front end too powerful for the wheelbase". Ironically, although the 'County' class were envisaged in 1901, the first member of the class was not built until 1904 - exactly one year after Webb had retired.

An original photograph by Henry L Salmon

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