GWR Route: Stratford on Avon to Honeybourne

Stratford-on-Avon Racecourse Platform: gwr_src1429

Ex-Great Western Railway 4-6-0 49xx Hall class No 7908 'Henshall Hall' passes Stratford-on-Avon Racecourse Halt on 14th April 1960 with an excursion from Birmingham. No 7908 was one of the modified Halls redesigned by Collett’s successor as CME - Mr F Hawkesworth. The locomotive was built at Swindon Works in January 1950 as part of Lot 368. With the demise of steam power on the railways, No 6959 had a comparatively short life being withdrawn from Tyseley shed (2A) in October 1965 and scrapped in December of the same year by Cashmore in Great Bridge. The out of use signal on the right is associated with the new junction with the ex-S&M Junction Railway which was constructed to provide a direct link to Fenny Compton for the traffic from the Oxfordshire Ironstone Company’s quarry at Wroxton to the Steelworks in South Wales.

Unfortunately the iron ore traffic from these quarries had already peaked in 1956 and was in terminal decline. By 1960 the quarry was operating a three day week and although still producing 40,000 tons of ore per week in 1965, this had dropped to 2,000 tons per week in 1967 and the quarry closed. This low level trackside view clearly shows the construction of the permanent way. Teak keys (wooden blocks) are inserted in between the bull head rail and the outer jaw of the cast iron chairs, which are bolted to the sleepers on the new track. These rail keys are slightly tapered and driven in from the direction of normal travel to prevent them loosening when trains pass.

Robert Ferris

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