GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Leamington Spa Station - Pre-grouping Locomotives: gwrls828

An unknown GWR '35xx' class 'Metro' 2-4-0T is seen on 20th August 1910 at the head of a local down train comprising six-wheel stock. This class of locomotives were nicknamed 'Metro' because they used on the Metropolitan Railway with condensing gear. They were built over a thirty year period starting in 1869 with the last being shopped at Swindon in 1899. The class operated across the county but only two were actually withdrawn from a local shed, Stratford-upon-Avon, No 627 in October 1928 and No 620 in November 1928. Behind the locomotive was the siding where the two 'carriage shoots', the place where carriages could be loaded and off-loaded from flat wagons. On the siding were two small turntables of a length just long enough to accommodate a 9 or 10 feet wheel base. These turntables allowed the rail wagon to be rotated into short bays for the carriage to be run off over the end via a ramp. In this instance the bays were at 45° to the rail so the carriage could be pushed into the wider part of the platform seen behind the locomotive.

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