GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Knowle & Dorridge Station: gwrkd1006

GWR 2-6-2T Large Prairie class No 4170 is seen at the head of an Down local Leamington to Birmingham Snow Hill service standing at Platform 4 on the Down Relief line in 1957. To the right on the platform is the water crane with the bag secured by chain to a funnel, fixed to the platform, designed to catch excess water after filling the locomotive. The curved side plate on top of the funnel was to prevent the wind from blowing drips across the platform.

The 4170 series of Large Prairies were the final manifestation of a very successful design that first appeared just after the beginning of the 20th century yet nearly half a century later was still the most appropriate design for the job. Built at Swindon works in October 1949 No 4170 had a very short life due to the demise of steam under the modernisation plan remaining in service until September 1960 when it was withdrawn from Tyseley shed finally being scrapped in April 1961 at Swindon works.

This class of 290 locomotives of the large prairie tank engines were the general workhorses of the Great Western. The prototype, No 99, was produced in 1903 and given a full trial over the next two years. Fitted with the Standard number 2 boiler of 200 p.s.i., flat topped tanks and driving wheels of 5 feet 8 inches diameter, another thirty-nine examples were built when the soundness of the design was proved. This batch of locomotives differed from the prototype in that the tank tops were sloping and flush cab sides were fitted instead of a marked relief between the tank and the bunker plates. The running numbers of this batch were 3111 to 3149 and the prototype was renumbered 3100. Over the next forty years the design continued to be produced, upgraded and rebuilt to accommodate modern standards and working other duties such as banking assistance. Courtesy of 'Great Western Archive'.

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