GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Widney Manor Station: gwrwm2627

Ex-Barry Railway Auto-Trailer No W4303 in use by the Engineering Department, circa 1952. The location is the mileage siding at the back of the goods yard at the northern end of Widney Manor Station. The photograph shows the Auto-Trailer’s two ex-second class compartments (before these were downgraded to third class when transferred to the Great Western Railway) and the gangway arrangement in the bow end. The two compartments had bench seating for fourteen passengers. Unlike other Auto-Trailers the end windows at the non-driving end (ie either side of the gangway) were not painted or plated over. It is thought that this was because this coach normally operated as one of a coupled pair, so the gangway end was rarely coupled directly behind a locomotive. Beyond the recessed door to a vestibule area was the main third class area, which was also partitioned into two compartments. The provision of two compartments for each class allowed for the separation of Smoking and Non-Smoking facilities.

This coach started life as one of a pair of Steam Rail Motors built jointly by RY Pickering & Co of Wishaw (near Glasgow) and the North British Locomotive Co (Atlas Works, Glasgow) for the Barry Railway in 1905. RY Pickering furnished and fitted the coach bodywork, while the North British provided the power unit - a vertical steam boiler and coupled four wheeled bogie with outside cylinders. The Steam Rail Motor which would eventually become coach No W4303, was numbered No 2 by the Barry Railway. In 1914 both of the steam rail motors were converted at the Barry carriage repair shops into composite trailer coaches. This trailer coach was numbered No 178 and was recorded as having 12 second class and 56 third class seats. In 1921, No 178 together with the other trailer (No 177 converted from Steam Rail Motor No 1) were regularly being used together on Barry to Bridgend services via the Vale of Glamorgan Line.

At the Grouping in January 1923, the Barry Railway became a constituent company of the new Great Western Railway and their locomotives and rolling stock were renumbered into the Great Western Railway’s stock lists. As a composite coach No 178 was initially allocated No 6134, but it never carried this number because the Great Western Railway had abolished second class in 1909 resulting in the coach being downgraded to an all third (70 seat) coach in June 1923. It was allocated No 4303 in September 1924. In 1907, the Great Western Railway had introduced a new system to simplify their carriage stock lists whereby the first number of the four digit number indicated the type of coach:

Note - numbers in italics were later additions to the 1907 scheme.

Surprisingly, while normal Auto-trailers were numbered in a separate list, the ex-Barry coaches were placed in the normal coach list with No 4303 identified as a Brake Third, while the other trailer coach which had retained some first class seats was identified as a brake composite and allocated No 6131. The two trailer coaches continued to work together and the pair became ‘Cardiff Division No 61 Auto Train’. After the Second World War No 4303 continued to operate alone around the Llantrisant area for a short period before being withdrawn from revenue earning passenger service and condemned in November 1951. Later that year the coach, now with the British Railways Western Region (W) prefix, was moved to Tyseley for use by the Engineering Department. The coach remained No W4303 and was not renumbered into a Departmental number series.

This photograph is displayed courtesy of the HMRS (Historical Model Railway Society) and copies can be ordered directly from them using the link HERE, quoting reference AEQ912.

Robert Ferris

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