GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Soho and Winson Green: gwrswg2291

British Railways 49xx (modified Hall) class 4-6-0 No 6992 ‘Aborfield Hall’ with an express passes Soho and Winson Green Station on the up relief line. The distant signal for the up relief line is in the ‘all clear’ position. The lower stop signal on the bracket indicates the status of the facing crossover to the up goods line. Between the tracks, to the left of the locomotive is the back of a ground disc signal associated with the relief line trailing crossover. These signals are controlled by steel wires from the Signal Box, while the rodding in the foreground operated the switches and detonator placement equipment.

Following the appointment of Mr Hawksworth as Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Western Railway in 1941, the traditional locomotive designs which had served the company for over forty years were radically overhauled to take advantage of the changes in manufacturing technology that had been introduced during the Second World War. The design was simplified with full length plate frames and more parts were now fabricated instead of cast. This particularly effected the smokebox saddle and bogie construction. In addition, issues such as coal quality and locomotive maintenance were addressed resulting in; outside steam pipes, larger superheaters, higher boiler temperature and mechanical lubrication.

Seventy of these modified Hall class locomotives were built between 1944 and 1950, with No 6992 being built in November 1948 at Swindon Works as part of lot 368. The locomotive was originally allocated to Gloucester Shed (85B) and was withdrawn from Worcester Shed (85A) in June 1964.

Robert Ferris

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