GWR Route: Alcester to Hatton Junction

GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line

Bearley Junction: gwrbj790

A 1953 view showing the boxed pipe from the aqueduct now being protected by a 'fire devil' against freezing weather. The Great Western Railway also owned the Stratford Canal which enabled them to devise this ingenious method of providing water for their railway engines where the Alcester branch passed under the Edstone Aqueduct. This photograph, taken on 6th June 1953, shows the boxed pipe from the aqueduct and the steps, which allowed the fireman to operate the valve. Compare with gwrbj764 for the same view before the North Warwickshire line was constructed. The wooden posted signal in the foreground was installed when the North Warwickshire line was built in 1907. The main line signal partially visible under the aqueduct on the left had a sighting board to enable the signal arm to be seen more clearly against the backdrop of the aqueduct steelwork. According to Stanley Jenkins & Roger Carpenter in their book 'The Alcester Branch' the 3½ mile post on extreme left was erected by BR (W) in March 1951 when the line became a long siding to Great Alne for crippled and stored wagons so the route mileage needed amending to suit.

Robert Ferris

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