LMS Route: Trent Valley Line

Brinklow Station: lnwr_brin4295

An unidentified British Railways 4-6-2 Britannia Class locomotive is seen on an up service at Brinklow in 1955. The locomotive is thought to be either No 70015 'Apollo', No 70016 'Ariel' or No 70017 'Arrow' given the short nameplate and the last numbers on the side of the cab. Lance Osbourne recalls photographing the locomotive standing adjacent to the canal during the railway and dockers strike of 1955. The Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen represented most, but not all, footplate men, some 70,000 men. The National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) represented the remaining footplate men and most other hourly paid workers. ASLEF went on strike to maintain the differential pay between footplatemen and non-footplatemen which it belied had been eroded, hence the reason why the NUR did not join in. The strike lasted for 17 days from midnight on Saturday 28th May 1955 to Tuesday 14th June 1955.

The Class 7 or Britannia Class of locomotives were designed by Robert Riddles for mixed traffic duties. In total fifty-five built between 1951 and 1954 in three batches at Crewe Works, before the publication of the 1955 Modernisation Plan. Based on best practice from the pre-nationalisation railway companies in terms of operating efficiency and lower maintenance costs, various weight-saving measures also increased the route availability of a Pacific-type locomotive on British Railways' network. The Britannia Class received a positive reception from their crews, with those regularly operating the locomotives giving them favourable reports as regards performance. However, operation in some areas of the British Railway network returned negative feedback, primarily due to indifferent operation of the locomotive, with its effects on adhering to timetables.

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