GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Solihull Station: gwrs3054

Ex-GWR 2-6-2T No 5187 shortly after departing Solihull on a down local passenger service using the down slow relief line. Built by Swindon works in April 1931 to Lot 259, this 5101 class 'Large Prairie' locomotive was to remain in service until May 1962 when it was withdrawn from 84F Stourbridge Junction shed to be scrapped by Swindon works.

Peter Jordan writes, 'I believe that the picture is taken from the bridge on Streetsbrook Road, and what is a bit misleading is that most pictures taken from this vantage point show the goods yard on the left. That is not visible in this picture, but I believe that that is where the rather rusty trailing connection that can be seen going off to the left-hand side of the picture leads to. The train is heading towards Birmingham on the Down Relief line, and the bracket signal visible behind the train reads either along the Down Relief (the arm that is cleared) or from Down Relief to Down Main. Post-1967 the quadruple track was cut back to Tyseley and the arrangement of lines re-jigged in preparation for the 1969 Saltley MAS scheme. So the line the train is travelling on has now disappeared'. Tim Bourne adds, 'The formation is unusual. The first three coaches seem to be a normal 3 coach Birmingham area set of the mid-fifties, but the fourth looks like a corridor coach, and those were very unusual on local services'.

From John Turner's '53A Models of Hull Collection', a photograph by the late James S Doubleday.

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