GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line

Birmingham Snow Hill Station: gwrbsh1766

Great Western Railway 39xx class 2-6-2T No 3920 blows off steam in the up centre road at the south end of Snow Hill, circa 1925. The locomotive is carrying a D class headcode (red lamp on smoke box and second on left hand side of the buffer beam) indicating an empty coaching stock train. The first of the coaches is a four wheeled, unganged, carriage. No 3920 was built as Dean Goods 0-6-0 tender locomotive No 2502 in October 1896 and converted to a tender locomotive in January 1910. At this time there was a demand for more powerful suburban locomotives especially in Birmingham following the opening of the North Warwickshire Line. With the Swindon Works machine shops operating at full capacity, these rebuilds used all the principle parts of twenty surplus Dean Goods locomotives on new frames with a Churchward standard No 5 boiler and two 750 gallon side tanks to produce these unusual looking prairie tank conversions.

The locomotive had inside cylinders and the large unsightly hole in the side tank gave access to the motion for oiling. The boiler operated at a pressure of 200 lbs producing a tractive effort at 85% of 20,155 lb and these locomotives were classified in power group B. The maximum axle weight was 17 tons 4 cwt restricting the locomotives to main lines and some branch lines (colour code – Blue). All the conversions were built without superheaters, but No 3920 had one fitted in July 1917. This and top-feed apparatus are visible in the photograph. Around 1920 the rear bunker was enlarged to increase coal capacity. These locomotives were designed for the Birmingham suburban traffic and No 3920 was known to have been allocated to Tyseley shed (TYS) in both January 1921 and May 1922. By 1929 most had been displaced by the new 2-6-2T locomotives and No 3920 was withdrawn from Hereford shed (HFD) in February 1931.

Robert Ferris

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