GWR Route: The North Warwickshire Line

GWR Route: Stratford on Avon to Hatton

Stratford on Avon Station: gwrsa3194

GWR 4-4-0 Bulldog class No 5553 'Pershore Plum' coasts into Stratford on Avon on 29th June 1935. This locomotive was built in November 1900 at Swindon Works as part of lot 124. When built, the locomotive originally carried the number No 3365 and the name 'Plymouth', but in December 1912 was renumbered to No 3353 as part of a general renumbering scheme that grouped locomotives of similar power together. In May 1927 the locomotive was also renamed from 'Plymouth' to 'Pershore Plum'. At the same time ten other locomotives also had their names removed because being towns and cities on Great Western Railway routes they were considered to be misleading. The new name for No 3353 was given in deference to the wishes of the National Farmers’ Union in Worcester. The locomotive had straight frames and when built a Standard No 2 domeless parallel boiler with a drumhead smokebox (type D0), but this was replaced in November 1906 with a Standard No 2 domeless three-quarter tapered boiler with a drumhead smokebox (type D3), a boiler type retained for the locomotive's remaining life. The locomotive was superheated in July 1911 initially with the Swindon No 2 (12 flue tubes and 72 element) two row superheater. Boiler pressure was increased from 180 lbs and topfeed apparatus was fitted shortly after. The boiler pressure was standardised on at 200 lbs by November 1919.

As built the locomotive had a calculated tractive effort at 85% of 18,955 lbs (later increased to 21,060 lbs) and was classified in Power Group B. With a maximum axle weight of 16 tons 16 cwt the locomotive had a Blue route class allowing it to operate on all main lines and some branches (i.e. both red and blue routes). Between 1928 and 1931 Automatic Train Control (ATC) was fitted. The original tender had a capacity for 3,000 gallons of water and 4 tons of coal, but these were later exchanged with larger tenders and in 1934 it is known that locomotive No 3353 was paired with tender No. 1995 from lot A94, a standard 3,500 gallon Churchward tender built in late 1916. This may well be the tender in the photograph. This locomotive was originally allocated to Bristol shed (BRD) and was known to have been allocated to Truro shed (TR) in January 1921. When renamed, No 3353 was believed allocated to Worcester shed (WOS) and was certainly allocated there in January 1934, January 1938 and was withdrawn from there in December 1946.

Robert Ferris

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