GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Greaves Sidings: gwrgs2257

Ex-Great Western Railway 60xx (King) class 4-6-0 No 6014 'King Henry VII' passes Harbury Cement Works on the up main line on Saturday 6th April 1957. Note the class A Headcode indicated by the lamps on either end of the buffer beam, this is the 9:00 Birmingham Snow Hill to Paddington express.

No 6014 was built at Swindon Works in May 1928 as part of lot 243. No 6014 was initially allocated to Newton Abbot Shed (NA), but moved to Lara Shed (LA) in Plymouth the following year. In August 1930 this locomotive was allocated to Stafford Road Shed (SRD) at Wolverhampton and remained there until 19th January 1935, when the locomotive was partially streamlined. The largely cosmetic modifications included a bullet nose, wedge shaped cab front, cylinder skirting, continuous splasher with straight nameplates, fairings behind the chimney and safety valve, and a tender cowl. Within five months the cylinder coverings were removed because they hindered routine lubrication and most of the other fittings had been removed by January 1943, one remaining legacy of this streamlining experiment was the unique positioning of the train route indicator number bracket below the smokebox door (to avoid interfering with the bullet nose attachment).

Publicity dictated that the newly steamlined locomotive was allocated to Old Oak Common shed (PDN) and No 6014 was there from 26th March 1935 to after nationalisation in October 1952. Between August 1950 and February 1954 the locomotive was given the BR Blue livery. On 16th February 1954, after two years in the West Country No 6014 in fully lined Brunswick green livery was again allocated to Stafford Road Shed (84A) in Wolverhampton. High temperature superheating was introduced on the King class in 1948, but No 6014 was not fitted with the new WB boiler until October 1956. In September 1957, No 6014 was fitted with a double chimney to improve boiler draughting and the fuel economy of the locomotive. No 6014 was finally withdrawn in September 1962 from Stafford Road shed, having travelled a total of 1,830,386 miles and was scrapped in March 1963 by Cox & Danks of Langley Green, Oldbury.

The wooden signal post on the other side of the main line is the down home signal operated by lever 2 in Greaves Sidings Signal Box. This lever was interlocked with the down main facing switch (21) and associated facing point lock (20). The post is taller than necessary because it originally had a lower bracket for a second stop signal. In the right foreground supported by a series of pulleys on short posts is the signal wire for the up main starting signal. This signal was 319 yards from the Signal Box.

Robert Ferris

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