GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Acocks Green & South Yardley Station: gwrag2438

Ex-GWR 4-6-0 No 6017 'King Edward IV' passes through the station on the down main on 4 th July 1959 with the 11:10am Paddington to Birkenhead (Woodside) service. The King will come off the train at Wolverhampton Low Level being normally replaced by a Castle Class locomotive for the remaining 84 miles as the route north was restricted to an axle weight which was less than of King Class locomotives. The latter were restricted in GWR days to 'hatched red' routes which comprised the main lines from Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads, both via Bath and via Badminton; Reading to Devonport via Newbury; Bristol Temple Meads to Taunton; and Paddington to Wolverhampton Low Level via Bicester. Further routes were raised to this category by British Railways: from Wolverhampton to Chester via Shrewsbury; and Bristol to Shrewsbury via Abergavenny. Built by Swindon works to Lot 243 in June 1928, No 6017 was to remain in service until July 1962 when it was withdrawn from 84A Stafford Road shed in Wolverhampton to be scrapped by Cox & Danks of Langley Green, Oldbury.

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