GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line

Tyseley Shed: gwrt2982

Great Western Railway 4-6-0 60xx (King) class No 6016 ‘King Edward V’ with class A headcode (see 'Headcodes' for more details) on a Paddington to Birmingham express passes Tyseley South Signal Box on the Down Main line in the spring of 1938.

No 6016 was completed at Swindon Works as part of Lot 243 at a cost of £6,383 and taken on stock on 16th June 1928. The King class were the largest locomotives built by the Great Western Railway, weighting over 135 tons (loaded) and having a maximum axle weight of 22.5 tons, which required them to be restricted to ‘hatched or Double Red’ main line routes. They had 6 foot 6 inch coupled wheels, four 16.25 inch cylinders and a boiler pressure of 250 lbs, which delivered a tractive effort of 40,300 lbs (for details of the Great Western Railway classification system see 'Engine Map'). As one of the most powerful locomotives of their time, they were destined for the crack passenger expresses between Paddington and the West Country, and also on the Birmingham Main Line between Paddington and Wolverhampton. Due to the high axle weight many bridges needed to be strengthened (see bridge tests on new quadrupled lines at 'gwrwm1592' and 'gwro1578').

Initially this locomotive was based at Laira shed (LA) near Plymouth and regularly hauled crack express trains, such as the Cornish Riviera, between Paddington and the West Country. Although No 6016 was only allocated to Stafford Road Shed near Wolverhampton in June 1952, the locomotive made the occasional visits to the Midlands before this, including being seen at Leamington Spa in October 1939. In 1953 No 6016 was chosen for an experiment with a new design of outside steam pipes and in January 1958 was fitted with a double chimney. For more details of the livery changes and modifications carried out on this locomotive after nationalisation see 'gwrswg802'. No 6016 was finally withdrawn from Stafford Road shed on 9th September 1962 having travelled 1,811,207 miles. On 14th November 1963, No 6016 was sold for scrap to Cox & Danks of Langley Green.

Robert Ferris

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