LMS Route: Birmingham West Suburban Railway

Bournville Shed: mrb688

British Railways engines photographed inside the roundhouse at Bournville in the 1950s. All four can be identified as locally based after 1955 and from left to right are as follows:
1 - Ex-LMSR 3 cylinder compound 4P 4-4-0 No 40925, built in 1927 and withdrawn in 1959.
2 - Ex-LMSR inside cylinder 4F 0-6-0 No 44203, built in 1925 and withdrawn in 1966.
3 - Ex-LMSR outside cylinder 5MT 4-6-0 No 44981, built in 1946 and withdrawn in 1967.
4 - Ex MR inside cylinder 3F 0-6-0 No 43523, typically complicated ex MR engine history! built in 1897 as 2F, rebuilt in 1904 as 3F & in 1922 with Belpaire boiler, withdrawn in 1960.

No 40925 was one of the last handful of LMSR compounds to survive as after 1959 there were only four left. No 44981 was one of the two largest locomotives allocated to Bournville in the late fifties [the other being an 8F 2-8-0] and is parked in the long bay opposite the entrance. Local passenger types came and went but 0-6-0s used on local freight workings were always present and No 43523 and No 44203 were typical of these. The 4F was notable for having a taller chimney than most of its kind.

John Dews

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