GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Leamington Spa Station: gwrls3004

Great Western Railway 4-4-0 3252 (Duke) class No 3267 ‘Cornishman’ with a full head of steam leaves Leamington’s up platform with a southbound ordinary passenger train (Class B Lamp Headcode) prior to August 1930. For more details see 'Headcodes'.

The ‘Duke’ class was the first of a new generation of four coupled locomotives designed for fast passenger duties. The 4-4-0 wheel arrangement proved to have good adhesion and provided a low axle weight frame for the power needed to haul the heavier trains, which were being introduced. Locomotive No 3274 was built in November 1896 at Swindon Works (works no 1532) as part of lot 105. As built the locomotive had a round top domed boiler operating at a pressure of 160 lb which produced a tractive effort at 85% of 16,848 lbs. In August 1911, a two row (12 tube/ 72 element) superheated parallel (group 79) domed boiler, with a flush Belpaire firebox, operating at 180 lb pressure was fitted. This increased the tractive effort at 85% to 18,955 lbs placing the locomotive in Power Group B. The locomotive had a maximum axle weight of 14tons, 12cwt, which meant it was restricted to main lines and nearly all branch lines – Route Colour Yellow. For more information about the Great Western Railway classification system see 'Engine Map'. In December 1912 as part of a scheme to group together locomotives with similar power characteristics, the locomotive was renumbered No 3267. The locomotive name ‘Cornishman’ was subsequently removed in August 1930, due to fears that passengers might confuse the name with a destination. No 3274 was originally allocated to Wellington Shed (WLN) and as No 3267 was known to be allocated to Gresty Lane Shed at Crewe (which was a sub-shed to Wellington) in January 1921. By the mid-1920s the ‘Duke’ class locomotives had been relegated to ordinary passenger duties over light lines including the Cambrian and MSWJ routes. In January 1934, No 3267 was known to have been allocated at Didcot shed (DID), from where it was withdrawn in October 1936.

Behind the tender is a fifty foot long, ganged, milk van (telegraphic code – Siphon G) to diagram O11. These vans had four double doors on each side and shallow upper ventilators extending the length of the van with horizontal timber planking below on outside wooden framing. They were designed to carry milk churns at passenger train speeds and were called ‘Brown’ vehicles as they were painted in an all-over brown livery with yellow ochre lettering. They were fitted with vacuum brakes and had a low three-centre roof profile. The Siphon G in the photograph has a nine foot wheelbase bogie with an equalising beam, which were called ‘American’ bogies. The table below details the 129 diagram O11 Siphon G milk vans constructed:

In August 1926 the Great Western Railway had built a prototype Siphon G (No 1270) on lot 1370 with internal framing (diagram O22) and after constructing a further 30 to this design, introduced vertical side planking in 1930 (diagram O33), of which another 115 were built. Fifty-four of the later design were later modified to make them suitable for ambulance trains in the months prior to the outbreak of the Second World War and when they were to be converted back after the war, the enclosed Siphon J (which included dry ice chilling) had been introduced for milk churn traffic and more importantly, the six wheeled milk tank wagons for bulk liquid transportation. As a result the majority of re-conversions were designated Parcels Vans (diagram M34) with much reduced ventilation.

Robert Ferris

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