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GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton
Hatton Bank: gwrhb99
Austerity WD 2-8-0 No 77015 ascending Hatton bank on the goods
down line on 15th May 1948 with a class H train (freight, mineral or ballast
train or train of empties carrying through load to destination). The metal
hopper wagons probably contain iron ore heading for South Wales via Claverdon
and Stratford.
The Austerity WD 2-8-0 class were designed by Robert Riddles in
1942. He was Assistant to William Stanier at the LMS and appointed Deputy
Director General of Royal Railway Equipment in 1941. The class was based on the
Stanier 8F, but took account of the wartime shortage of materials and manpower
with a simpler parallel boiler. Construction started in January 1943 and by May
1945, 935 engines had been built by North British Locomotive Co. and Vulcan
Works. Many were used on the continent in the later stages of WW2, but after
nationalisation the British Transport Commission purchased 533 engines. They
were mainly used for freight and had the nickname Bed Irons because
of the load clanking noise they produced.
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