LMS Route: Evesham to Birmingham

Barnt Green: mrbg712

MR 2-2-2 No 680 pilots an unidentified MR 2-2-0 locomotive whilst at the head of a down passenger service. The MR 2-2-2 locomotives were the principal express locomotives of the Midland Railway from 1852 till 1866, between which years Matthew Kirtley built 74 of them, all to one general pattern, although the later batches had somewhat larger dimensions. They had double sandwich frames, and at first received raised firebox casings, but most of them were rebuilt by Johnson after 1875 with flush fireboxes, and small cabs in place of the original weatherboards. A few were broken up in the 1870s without being rebuilt, but most of them lasted for many years longer, some of them as late as 1905.

back