LMS Route: Birmingham West Suburban Railway

Bournville Shed: mrb17

LMSR 1P 2-4-0 No 20002 photographed outside the shed at Bournville on Saturday 2nd March 1935. It may have been deliberately posed for H.C.Casserley, as the points behind the engine are not set for it to enter or leave the shed. Originally constructed in 1866 at the Midland Railway's Derby Works, this double framed locomotive entered service as No 158. Fitted with six foot three inch diameter driving wheels, it was one of twenty-nine Kirtley designed '156' class engines, the last of which was built in 1874, after his death. No 158 was substantially rebuilt in December 1881 with larger cylinders, new Johnson boiler and a cab instead of a weatherboard. The original tender was probably replaced by an inside framed one at the same time. The first of its classmates to be scrapped was No 157 in October 1894. In August 1896 No 158 was transferred onto the MR duplicate list [suffix "A" added], but despite this apparent downgrading, No 158A was further rebuilt with a larger Johnson boiler in June 1897. In 1907 the twenty-two surviving '156' class engines, all by then on the duplicate list, were renumbered from 1 to 22 in the main stock list, No 158A becoming No 2 in October.

All these survivors had been rebuilt like No 2 and were fitted with Deeley style chimneys and smokebox doors. This was the final form of the class and twenty-one lasted long enough to become LMSR property in 1923. The first one built, withdrawn in 1930, was restored to its Edwardian condition at Derby with a view to preservation, but the powers that be changed their mind and it was broken up in 1932. Five lasted long enough to be renumbered onto the LMSR duplicate list of 1934, No 2 becoming No 20002 in May of that year. It was given a front number plate at a later date, not the usual practice for 2xxxx engines. Withdrawn in July 1947, it was the last surviving ex-MR double framed passenger engine, and was restored to its Edwardian condition as Midland Railway No 158A, paired with the distinctive ' horseshoe' tender from Kirtley 0-6-0 No 22834 [21B allocated in 1945]. Unlike its unlucky classmate, it has been preserved as part of the national collection, and was placed on show in Birmingham during the New Street Station centenary celebrations in 1954, see lnwrbns_br1798. It can now be seen as a static exhibit at Midland Railway Butterley in Derbyshire, on loan from the National Railway Museum in York.

John Dews

back