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GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line

Tyseley Shed: gwrt3901

Great Western Railway 0-6-0PT 57xx class Pannier Tank No 5739 outside Tyseley Engine Shed in 1931

Great Western Railway 0-6-0PT 57xx class Pannier Tank No 5739 outside Tyseley Engine Shed in 1931. Behind the locomotive are two 2-8-0 28xx class heavy freight locomotives, while beyond and above them is the Carriage Shed with a rake of clearstory coaches stabled in the sidings in front.

No 5739 was built by the North British Locomotive Company at their Queens Park Works (works No 23857) in March 1929 and their works plate can be seen on the leading wheel splasher. The Great Western Railway ordered (as lot 256) fifty 57xx class pannier tank locomotives from the North British Locomotive Company and subsequently a further two lots (264 and 274) both for twenty-five 57xx class locomotives. The Great Western Railway eventually had 863 of these 57xx class locomotives, of which 250 had been built by various external British locomotive works with money obtained from the Government's Development (Loan Guarantees and Grants) Act of 1929. This Government scheme had been introduced to alleviate unemployment caused by the depression. The table below lists the first 300 locomotives of the 57xx class, including all those built by external companies:

Lot GWR No Quantity Date Builder Builder’s Works Location Works No
256 5700 - 5724 25 1929 North British Locomotive Co Hyde Park Works, Glasgow 23818 - 23842
5725 - 5749 25 1929 North British Locomotive Co Queens Park Works, Glasgow 23843 - 23867
258 5750 - 5779 30 1929 Great Western Railway Swindon Works  
260 5780 - 5799 20 1930 Great Western Railway Swindon Works  
262 6700 - 6724 25 1930 W.G. Bagnall Castle Engine Works, Stafford 2381 - 2405
263 7700 - 7724 25 1930 Kerr Stuart California Works, Stoke-on-Trent 4435 - 4459
264 7725 - 7749 25 1930 North British Locomotive Co Queens Park Works, Glasgow 23921 - 23945
265 6725 - 6749 25 1931 Yorkshire Engine Co Meadowhall Works, Sheffield 2249 - 2273
271 7775 - 7799 25 1931 Armstrong Whitworth Scotswood Works, Newcastle-upon-Tyne 1131 - 1155
272 8725 - 8749 25 1931 W.G. Bagnall Castle Engine Works, Stafford 2422 - 2446
273 8700 - 8724 25 1931 Beyer Peacock & Co Gorton Foundary, Manchester 6680 - 6704
274 7750 - 7774 25 1931 North British Locomotive Co Queens Park Works, Glasgow 24038 - 24062

The 57xx class locomotives were designed as replacements for the numerous types of Victorian shunting tank locomotives, some of which had been absorbed from other Companies during the Grouping and which were now life-expired and becoming increasingly unreliable. Drawing on the best features of their predecessors, the design was updated to produce a more comfortable and efficient locomotive capable of undertaking both light freight and passenger turns, in addition to shunting. The belpaire boiler was not superheated, but the operating pressure of 200lbs gave a tractive effort (at 85%) of 22,515lb (Power Group – C). The pannier tanks held 1,200 gallons of water and the coal bunker had a capacity of 3tons, 6cwt. Loaded, the maximum axle weight was 16tons, 15cwt, which restricted the locomotive to most main routes and a few branch lines (Route colour – Blue), but this was changed to Yellow in 1950 after tests showed that these 57xx class locomotives had very little hammer blow.

Being primarily designed as shunting locomotives, the locomotives from lot 256 (including No 5739) were provided with vacuum and steam brakes, but were without Automatic Train Control (ATC) or steam heating facilities, so were not initially suitable for passenger duties. These features were later retrofitted to increase their versatility. No 5739 was initially allocated to Tyseley (TYS) in April 1929, before moving to various other sheds in the West Midlands, including Oxley, Stafford Road near Wolverhampton and Banbury. No 5739 was allocated to Chester Shed (84K) in December 1954 and withdrawn from there in August 1958.

Robert Ferris

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