GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Lapworth Station: gwrl1461

Ex-Great Western Railway 4-6-0 60xx ‘King’ class No 6019 ‘King Henry V’ approaches Lapworth Station at speed on the up main line with a Birkenhead to Paddington express. Circa 1960. Notice the down main line has been re-railed with flat bottomed track secured with steel pins, while the switch crossing still has bull head rail in chairs secured by wooden keys. This photograph must have been taken after 1959, when the three figure train reporting number system on the smoke box door was changed to indicate to destination with the first digit (0 = Paddington). Prior to this date the first digit had indicated the origin of the train. No 6019 was built at Swindon Works in July 1928, as the last of the first batch of ‘Super Castle’ Locomotives (lot 243). This locomotive was known to be allocated to Stafford Road (Wolverhampton) shed (SRD) in 1934 and to Laira (Plymouth) shed (LA) prior to nationalisation in December 1947. In April 1957 No 6019 was fitted with a double chimney to improve boiler draughting and the fuel economy of the locomotive. No.6No 6019019 was withdrawn from Stafford Road (Wolverhampton) shed (84A) in September 1962 and scrapped in December 1962 by J Cashmore in Newport.

Robert Ferris

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