LMS Route: Evesham to Birmingham

Barnt Green: mrbg719

Ex-LMS 4-6-0 Black 5 No 44841 enters Barnt Green station on a down express as classmate No 44815 waits at the signals in 1953. Bob Essery writes in DJ Norton's pictorial survey of Railways in the West Midlands Part Three that the use of a Class 5 on passenger services on the Redditch line was unusual at this date. When the express had passed and the signals protecting the junction on the main line had been set to normal, only then would the road for the Redditch line be set for the train from Redditch. Built at Crewe works in October 1944, No 44841 was to remain in service until October 1966 when it was withdrawn from Oxley shed in Wolverhampton to be scrapped in February 1967 by J Cashmore of Great Bridge. Its classmate, No 44815, was built the following month at Derby works and was to remain in service until February 1968 when it was withdrawn from Trafford Park shed in Manchester to be scrapped in June 1968 by G Cohen of Kettering.

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