GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line

Birmingham Snow Hill Station: gwrbsh1751

Great Western Railway 2-6-2T large prairie, 5101 class No 5196 about to depart from bay platform 4 at the north end of Birmingham Snow Hill on 5th August 1947. This was the 3:55 pm. class A suburban local to Stourbridge Junction. Locomotive No 5196 was built at Swindon Works in October 1934 as part of lot 284. These locomotives were designed for suburban traffic duties and the class was mostly allocated to the Midlands area until the late 1950s, when their role was usurped by the Diesel Multiple Units (DMUs). No 5196 was originally allocated to Stourbridge shed (STB), was known to have been allocated there in January 1938 and also prior to nationalisation in December 1947. Under British Railways No 5196 was still known to have been allocated to Stourbridge shed (84F) in August 1950, but regional reorganisation occurred in 1957 and many of the class were dispersed to other duties.

No 5196 was known to have been allocated at Newton Abbot (83A) in March 1959, possibly as a banking engine, and the locomotive was withdrawn from this shed in the December of the same year. No 5196 was recorded as being disposed of at Swindon Works in June 1960. The coaches are made up of a set of four 57 foot long, non corridor, toplight carriages completed at Swindon Works on 19th March 1922. In 1947 Birmingham Division had two of these four coach sets, numbered No 11 and No 12. At each end of each set was a diagram D67 brake third coach (lot 1283). These had; six third class compartments, a guards compartment and outermost a luggage area. The Birmingham set coaches had running numbers 3813/14 and 3815/16. In between is a pair of diagram E103 composite coaches (lot 1282), each with nine first/third class compartments. The respective coach running numbers of the Birmingham sets were 7915/16 and 7917/18. These coaches were eventually condemned in February 1966.

Robert Ferris

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