GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Leamington Spa - GWR Locomotives: gwrls213

An unidentified ex-ROD or GWR 31xx class 2-8-0 passes through the station on down goods train whilst an up express consisting of SR coaching stock passes in the background circa 1930s. The GWR borrowed several Railway Operating Division 2-8-0s during the First World War but these were returned to the government after the end of the war. They were based on the Robinson design of 1911 for the Great Central. In 1919 the GWR bought 20 virtually new RODs and numbered them 3000-19. A further 84 were hired in July 1919 and these were numbered 3020-99 and 6000-3 however these were returned in October 1922. In 1925 the GWR bought 80 engines including some previously hired and numbered them 3020-99.

In 1926-7 the GWR sorted their RODs into two batches. The original 3000-19 and 3020-49 were considered good engines and given proper overhaul and Swindon fittings. The remainder were renumbered 3050-3099, given a light overhaul and then ran until they failed, when they were withdrawn — all were gone by 1930. There was some swapping of numbers, so that engines in better condition were given the lower numbers. The GWR borrowed 30 Class O4 (the LNER classification for the locomotive) in 1940 but returned them between 1941 and 1943. In 1948 at nationalisation some 46 of the RODs entered British Railways service.

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