GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line

Birmingham Snow Hill - Grouping Period Rolling Stock: gwrbsh3052

Great Western Railway Third Class Coach No 4711 in a down express with roof board identifying destinations stands at platform 6 circa 1939. The bridge plate girders are those above Great Charles Street.

This was a seventy foot long ganged third class coach to diagram C46 (lot 1337) in 1934 livery. It had ten third class compartments with a toilet at each end. By the time this coach was built coach design had evolved, utilising the latest technology to make them safer, more comfortable and easier to construct; the Great Western Railway had introduced fire proof floors in 1911, followed by steel panelled sides, while in 1922, steel roof panels replaced the traditional wood and canvas (with a special shearing machine installed at Swindon works in 1925). In 1925 over 28% of all carriages had electric lighting and the Lenz Leitner system was the standard for new construction. This photograph shows the corridor side with the large windows flush to the steel sides. These diagram C46 coaches were built in two lots as detailed in the following table:

All the diagram C46 coaches were condemned by June 1963. The adjacent coach is a newer sixty foot long ganged composite, No 7027 from lot 1587 with four first class compartments, three third class compartments and a toilet at each end. Individual compartment doors had been dispensed with and this coach had four doors on the corridor side and a door at each end on the compartment side. These were diagram E158 coaches, which were built in two lots as detailed in the following table:

This photograph is displayed courtesy of the HMRS (Historical Model Railway Society) and copies can be ordered directly from them using the link HERE, quoting 'ABW121' (from the J Cull Collection).

Robert Ferris

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