GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Handsworth & Smethwick: gwrhj3173

A Great Western Railway 2-6-2T small prairie class 4575 locomotive arrives at the new Hawthorns Halt breaking a tape consisting of the two teams club colours. The platform in the photograph is that on the Up Relief / Stourbridge extension line taken from the footbridge. The 4575 class locomotives introduced in 1927 were an updated version of the 45xx class locomotives which had first been built in 1906. The 4575 class had larger side tanks (1,300 gallons) with distinctive sloping front ends to improve driver visibility, but although the larger tanks extended their range they added to their overall weight (now 61 tons). One hundred class 4575 locomotives were built between 1927 and 1929.

Robert Ferris

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