GWR Route: The North Warwickshire Line

GWR Route: Stratford on Avon to Hatton

Stratford on Avon Shed: gwrsa1447

Ex-Great Western Railway 0-4-2T 58xx class No 5813 at the coaling stage at Stratford-on-Avon shed on 28th April 1957. In the background adjacent to the engine shed is a 2-8-0 38xx class freight engine. Locomotive No 5813 was built at Swindon Works in August 1933 as part of Lot 279. The twenty 58xx class locomotives were essentially identical to the 48/14xx class, but without the auto train equipment or Automatic Train Control (ATC) as it was intended that these locomotives would operate goods trains on lightly constructed branch lines which were limited due to civil engineering restrictions to uncoloured category locomotives (i.e. those with an axle weight of under 14 tons). No 5813 was initially allocated between Shrewsbury shed and Ludlow sub-shed until November 1936, when it moved to South Wales. During the Second World War it was allocated between Reading shed and Henley-on-Thames sub-shed. After hostilities ended and a boiler change in November 1945, it moved to Bristol and was allocated to between Bath Road shed and Yatton sub-shed in Bristol. In April 1957, Nos 5813 and 5815 were allocated to Leamington shed, where they reportedly substituted for the diesel railcars on the Leamington – Stratford-upon-Avon route. But this was its final swan song, for after travelling a total of 399,130 miles, No 5813 was withdrawn from Leamington Spa shed (84D) on 29th November 1957 and cut up at Swindon on 25th January 1958.

Robert Ferris

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