GWR Routes: Banbury to Wolverhampton

GWR Routes: North Warwickshire Line

Moor Street Station: gwrms1706a

Close-up of image 'gwrms1706' showing the end of the island platform where a Great Western Railway standard water crane was available to replenish locomotives. The crane’s eight inch diameter horizontal pipe could be swung to either side of the platform using a chain, The six foot long flexible leather hose at the end of the pipe would then be placed into the water tank, before the handle at the base of the crane was turned to regulate the flow. A hopper drain (with a one foot, ten and a half inch diameter at the top) was provided for the hose when it was not in use. To prevent the water in the crane’s pipework from freezing a fire grate (popularly referred to as a fire devil) was provided. This had a long fork-ended stovepipe to direct the heat on to the crane’s pipework. In the late 1930s the introduction of larger capacity tenders with the new locomotives required the pipework on many water cranes to modified by welding in a new piece of pipe, which cranked the pipework upwards to give it additional height.

Robert Ferris

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