GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Bentley Heath Crossing: gwrbh22

Two GWR 4-4-0 County class locomotives are seen crossing each other at Bentley Heath in August 1931. By this time the County class locomotives were no longer handling the crack express services for which they had been built, but had been relegated to secondary passenger duties following the introduction of the larger 4-6-0 locomotives. However, with the general upgrading of civil works and bridges in the 1920's, the need to retain lighter engines for these routes had been removed and most of these County class engines would have been withdrawn from service by the end of this year. The locomotive on the Up local train nearest the camera is No 3821 ‘The County of Bedford’ No 3821 was built at Swindon works in December 1911 at part of lot 184.

This locomotive was known to have been allocated to Old Oak Common shed at Paddington in January 1921. No 3821 was only twenty years old when withdrawn from service in September 1931 having travelled 690,000 miles. The clerestory carriage on the Down train shows how facilities were provided for the long distance traveller before the introduction of corridors and gangways. Here instead of a toilet being placed at the end of each carriage with access by a corridor, pairs of toilets were located between compartments, with each compartment having direct access to one toilet. In the photograph the obscured single window of the toilet can be seen between the first and second compartments (these compartment being identified by a three window grouping, the centre one of which is in the compartment door).

Robert Ferris

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