LMS Route: Birmingham West Suburban Railway

Bournville Shed: mrb487

Two elderly ex-MR double framed 0-6-0s, clearly still in use, are seen face-to-face in a siding at Bournville on Sunday 29th June 1947. Built with curved outside frames to make the crank pins of the coupling rods more accessible, Kirtley's '700' class was once a standard type originally numbering no less than 328 locomotives. These two late surviving examples were both much rebuilt; as seen in the photo, No 22630 had ended up with a Johnson boiler & Johnson cab and No 22846 with a Fowler Belpaire boiler & Deeley rounded eaves cab. The five figure LMS numbers indicated that they were on the company's duplicate list. Dates & details of the engines' history can be found with images 'mrb1549' & 'mrb1'

John Dews

back