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GWR Route: Stratford on Avon to Honeybourne

Long Marston Station: gwrlm481

An early view of the station with what is thought to be a GWR 517 class or the 3571 class 0-4-2T (with square tanks) running bunker first

An early view of the station with what is thought to be a GWR 517 class or the 3571 class 0-4-2T (with square tanks) running bunker first on a four coach train to Stratford and beyond. Beyond the train can be seen a rake of wagons standing in the refuge siding. Robert Ferris writes, 'The photograph shows the bunker beading around the top of the coal bunker. This was a method of extending the capacity of the bunker made possible with the steel plate construction techniques which were introduced from about 1880. Prior to that date the usual method of extending the bunker was to add a couple of coal rails to the top of the bunker. These rails were of limited value as they could only retain large pieces of coal. However although the Great Western Railway's Wolverhampton Works changed to the new extension design almost immediately, their other works at Swindon were still fitting pairs of coal rails at the turn of the century. Post 1906 the triple decorative beading on the bunker extensions which resembled the coal rails was omitted and the bunkers were plain with only a single beading on the top edge retained to provide some additional structural strength.'

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