GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Bentley Heath Crossing: gwrbh21

Great Western Railway 2-8-0 class 28xx No 2875 passes Bentley Heath with a southbound freight train in 1932-33. The two red lamps on the buffer beam indicate a class H engine code (Goods, mineral or ballast train, carrying through load to destination). In this case the destination is likely to have been Southall in London. Unfitted ‘common user’ 4 or 5 plank wagons from other railway companies are much in evidence in the train. The quadrupling of the line is nearly complete with only the ballast to be laid on the newly laid tracks positioned on either side of the original line. The new embankment work and lineside fencing can also be seen.

Locomotive No 2875 was built at Swindon Works in December 1918 as part of lot 210, whose 28 locomotives had been ordered to assist with the demands of shifting Navy coal (see details in GWR Index 6). These engines had been designed at the turn of the century by Great Western Railway's Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME.) – GJ Churchward, for heavy freight work and they formed the backbone of the company's express freight services. They had an E power classification, but were restricted to the main Red routes, until reclassified for the lighter Blue routes in July 1919. The same design continued to be built with few modifications for almost fifty years. Only the purchase of the cheap war surplus 2-8-0 ROD locomotives stopped the extension of the class during the interwar years.

After experimenting to improve locomotive designs, CME. GJ Churchward produced a range of standard boilers and mechanical parts, which greatly improved the efficiency of locomotive construction and maintenance. The 28xx class was fitted with the 14 foot 10 inch long Standard No 1A boiler also used on 20xx, 29xx, 40xx, 49xx and 68xx class locomotives. No 2875 originally had a superheated full coned barrel version of this boiler (type D4), an austerity cast iron chimney and was painted in unlined green livery, but the boiler was subsequently replaced in February 1925 with a half coned barrel superheated version (type D2). The photograph shows No 2875 with another full coned barrel D4 type boiler. This was fitted in July 1927.

In January 1921 this locomotive was known to have been allocated to Tyseley shed (TYS) and could also be found there in January 1934, but in the following year, January 1935, No 2875 was allocated to Oxley shed (OXY) in Wolverhampton. In January 1938 No 2875 was allocated to Paddington Shed (PDN) and was also allocated there at nationalisation, in December 1947. No 2875 had outside steam pipes fitted around May 1958 and was finally withdrawn in April 1964 to be disposed of by Birds (Swansea) Ltd.

Robert Ferris

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