GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Widney Manor Station: gwrwm1592

Bridge Testing at Widney Manor Station on Sunday 25th March 1934 with four King Class locomotives coupled in pairs and running side by side on the new Birmingham Relief lines after the quadrupling of the track between Olton and Lapworth. Here 6017 King Edward IV and 6005 King George II are steaming in company with No 6001 King Edward VII and 6014 King Henry VII at speed (60 mph) across the new steel plate bridge over Widney Lane at the Solihull end of the station. This is the same bridge seen under construction in photograph 'gwrwm425' and the finished wooden platforms (Platforms 3 and 4) can also be clearly seen. The 60XX King Class locomotive was the Great Western Railway’s largest locomotive with a maximum axle weight of 22 tons 10cwt. With their tender, each locomotive had a total weight of approximately 136 tons loaded, so the combined static weight of the four engines together was over 500 tons.

Robert Ferris

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