GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line

Tyseley Shed: gwrt3000

Ex-Great Western Railway 2-6-0 43xx class mogul No 5369 waiting in front of the Carriage Sidings at Tyseley Shed on Sunday 26th November 1961. The 43xx class moguls were the ‘Maids of all work’ on the Great Western Railway gaining an excellent reputation due to their versatility as powerful mixed traffic locomotives, with a total of 342 built between 1911 and 1932.

Locomotive No 5369 was built in June 1919 at Swindon Works as part of lot 208. The average cost of locomotives in this lot was £4,582. The long coned Standard No 4 (group 87) boiler had a 14 tube/84 element superheater and a Belpaire firebox. The boiler pressure was 200 lb producing a tractive effort at 85% of 25,670 lb placing the locomotive in Power Group D. The maximum axle weight of locomotives in this lot was 17 tons, 13 cwt which restricted the locomotive to Main Lines and some Branch Lines (Route Colour Blue). To understand more about the Great Western Railway’s classification system see 'Engine Map'. Issues with flange wear on the pony bogie wheels when used on sharply curved lines lead to a requirement to increase the front end weight and a heavy casting was added behind the front buffer beam on sixty five of the 43xx class locomotives. This however also increased the maximum axle weight to 19 tons 8 cwt, which restricted the modified locomotives to Main Lines and a few Branch Lines (Route Colour Red). To identify those locomotives with this restriction, the modified locomotives had their numbers altered to a new 83xx series. A little over twenty years later this modification was reversed, due to a general lack of locomotives capable of operating over Blue category routes. The casting was added to No 5369 on 6th March 1928 and it received the new number - No 8369. The casting was subsequently removed on 14th June 1944 when the locomotive’s original number was restored. No 5369 had outside steam pipes fitted in September 1956.

No 5369 was originally allocated to Chester Shed (CHR) and was also known to have been allocated there in January 1921, but in 1922, No 5369 had moved south to Stafford Road Shed (SRD) near Wolverhampton. No 8369 was known to have been allocated to Oxley Shed (OXY) in January 1934 and to Tyseley Shed (TYS) in January 1938. Prior to nationalisation in December 1947, No 5369 was allocated to Tyseley Shed and was also known to have been allocated there in August 1950 and March 1959. No 5369 was withdrawn from Pontypool Shed (86G) in November 1963 having completed 1,299,423 miles. The locomotive was sold to J Cashmore Ltd at Newport for disposal on 30th January 1964 and scrapped in March 1964.

Robert Ferris

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