GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Leamington Shed: gwrls808a

Close up of image 'gwrlr808' showing the door to the office located on the ground floor of the three-storey coaling stage. Whilst poor in quality, this photograph is the only one seen to date which shows the doorway and outside area on the ground floor. The slope of the embankment is obvious on the left whilst on the right the embankment was level. This arrangement was designed to aid the movement of the loco coal wagon by gravity and thereby saving money by not having to use horse or steam power. As can be seen, the coal tipping mechanism is still the original single coal tub design. The double coal tub design seen later in the shed's life would only be useful when coaling the much longer tender rather than short bunkers. The unidentified GWR 2-6-2T Prairie locomotive on the right is having its tanks topped up with water. The water crane was designed to rotate 360° and when positioned as above could serve two sets of tracks. The side tanks of the locomotive were connected to each other thereby allowing the water to pass between the tanks the water to equalise itself during the working day.

back