GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Leamington Spa - GWR Locomotives: gwrls188

GWR 4-6-0 No 4936 'Kinlet Hall' on an an up empty stock working with a very mixed bag of passenger coaches. Built for the Great Western Railway in 1929 at Swindon Works No 4936 was a member of the Hall class engines designed for mixed traffic. Several of the type were allocated to Tyseley shed for semi-fast, parcels and holiday excursions and they also worked the fruit trains to Moor Street goods depot including the famous broccoli trains from Cornwall. When new, No 4936 was paired with a 3500 gallon tender, but exchanged it for a 4000 gallon tender in 1938. She was first allocated to Chester, them moved frequently to such places as Swindon, Stafford Road, Shrewsbury, Oswestry, Oxley, Oxford, Old Oak Common before spending her later years at Truro and Laira and ending her BR days at Cardiff Canton and East Dock.

Kinlet Hall was withdrawn from service on 15th January 1964 and sold as scrap to Woodham Bros of Barry. The 'Kinlet Hall Locomotive Co Ltd' was formed in 1980 to purchase and restore 4936 to working order. She was purchased and transferred to Peak Rail, Matlock in May 1981, but moved to the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway, Toddington in March 1985, then Llangollen in October 1992. The next move, to Tyseley her present home, occurred in December 1996. The first successful steaming for 36 years took place at Tyseley Locomotive Works on 16th February 2000. Following a light trial run from Tyseley to Stratford and then an evening loaded test run from Birmingham Snow Hill to Worcester Shrub Hill, including a climb up the gruelling Old Hill Bank on 8th June 2000, Kinlet Hall achieved National Rail mainline certification.

http://www.kinlethall.co.uk/

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