GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Leamington Spa - GWR Locomotives: gwrls208

GWR 4-6-0 29xx 'Saint' class No 2909 'Lady of Province' stands at Leamington on an up express to Paddington. Another of the batch of ten ‘Ladies’ built at Swindon in May 1906 (Lot 164). Built with a long cone tapered Standard No 1 boiler and was superheated in May 1911. When the new cut-off route to Birmingham was opened in 1910, a comprehensive independent study of the running speeds of thirteen express services was made by A V Goodyear. This included one by No 2909 Lady of Province with a load of 390 tons. The journey from Birmingham to Paddington took a total of 92 minutes 30 seconds, which included a scheduled stop at Leamington of 2 minutes 15 seconds and slowing to release a slip coach at Banbury (85 tons). The advent of the ‘Castle’ class gradually displaced the ‘Saints’ from front line duties, but these were useful engines and withdrawal was protracted, governed by condition rather than age. The locomotive was the third of the ‘Saint’ class engines to be withdrawn. The last allocation was Wolverhampton Stafford Road Shed (SRD) in November 1931 and the engine was scrapped at Swindon shortly after.

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