GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Hatton Station: gwrhj1927

United States Army Transport Corps S120 Class 2-8-0 No 2138 leaves the up loop refuge siding with a long coal train circa 1943. The S160 Class was a class of 2-8-0 steam locomotive designed for heavy freight work in Europe during World War II. A total of 2,120 were built and they worked on railways across the world, including Africa, Asia, all of Europe and South America. Some 800 locomotives were constructed in 1942 and 1943 in thirteen batches by three principle manufacturers, ALCO, Baldwin and Lima Locomotive Works. They were shipped to South Wales and dispatched from the GWR locomotive depot at Newport, Ebbw Junction. The first 43 locomotives of the class were transferred to the LNER works at Doncaster for completion and then for running in over the East Coast mainline to replace damaged stock. This started a pattern whereby each of the four British railway companies eventually deployed a total of 400 S160's under the guise of 'running in,' but factually replacing lost stock and increasing the capacity of the British railways system to allow for shipping of military pre-invasion equipment and troops. The eventual deployment of S160's were:

174 to the Great Western Railway
168 to the London and North Eastern Railway
50 to the London, Midland and Scottish Railway
6 to the Southern Railway

The second batch of 400 S160's were prepared for storage by USATC personnel at Great Western locomotive depot Ebbw Junction, in the immediate run-up to D-Day. Post the D-Day invasion of Normandy, the locomotives deployed across Britain again began to collect and be refurbished at Ebbw Vale in preparation for shipment to Europe.

back