GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Leamington Spa - BR Locomotives: gwrls2121

Ex-GWR 68xx Class 4-6-0 No 6858 'Woolston Grange' faces Birmingham with a motley collection of coaching stock circa 1952. A passenger brake van is nearest to the camera, with an auto trailer in the centre and at the far end, what was probably the through coach to Paddington from Stratford upon Avon. In 1952 this coach would have been coupled to the 2:40pm Birkenhead service. John Copsey writes that 'in the interwar period, there had been two daily through coaches to and from Stratford upon Avon, one of which was temporarily displaced by the short lived summertime through express service in the 1929-31 period, but in the post war period there was just one. Built by Swindon works to Lot 308 in December 1937, No 6858 remained in service until October 1965 when it was withdrawn from 2A Tyseley shed to be scrapped by G Cohen of Kingsbury.

back