LMS Route: Birmingham West Suburban Railway

Five Ways Station: mrf470

Stranger in the camp! BR built, but from an ex-LNER 4-6-0 B1 design, No 61315 heads a Birmingham-West Country Saturday holiday relief on July 1962. Whilst unusual it was not unknown for a receiving shed responsible for servicing visiting locomotives to borrow them for trips when they were hard pressed due either to high levels of bookings or when their own locomotives were unavailable. Mick Bramwich writes "ER 4-6-0 B1’s were regular visitors on the Bristol line. The all time regular turn was ‘Mayflower’, one of the few named locos of this class."

Number 61315 previously carried the LNER's running No 32 on being built by the North British Locomotive Company in April 1948, four months after the LNER ceased to operate. Thomson's equivalent design to the Black 5, No 61315 did not quite make 20 years in service before it was withdrawn from Langwith Jct shed in February 1966 to be scrapped in October 1968 by G Halsewood of Attercliffe near Sheffield. Its tender was rebuilt by BR as a snowplough as locomotive tenders were ideal for the job having both the bulk and weight to clear deep snow drifts over the hills of northern England.

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