GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Bentley Heath Crossing: gwrbh1649

Great Western Railway 2-8-0 class 30xx (ex ROD.) No 3001 steams past Bentley Heath with a southbound freight train in the late afternoon sunshine during 1933. The two red lamps on the buffer beam indicate a class H engine code (Goods, mineral or ballast train, carrying through load to destination). There were several heavy good services operating from the Great Western Railway’s yards in the midlands to Banbury every day. One such service was the Bordesley (dep. 8:10 pm.) to Banbury (arr. 10.58 pmpm), which ran weekdays as required and was scheduled to pass Bentley Heath at 8.38 ppmm The 30xx class locomotives only had steam brakes, which were incompatible with the vacuum brake used on Great Western Railway ‘fitted’ wagons, so these locomotives were limited to unfitted freight trains.

They had a calculated tractive effort of 32,200 lb. and were therefore designated Group D engines. According to the service time tables, on the up route between West Bromwich and Leamington, Group D engines were expected to haul a maximum of 88 (class 3 traffic) wagons. These locomotives had a maximum axle weight of 17 tons, 2 hundredweight, so were given a Blue route classification, allowing them to operate over both Red and Blue routes. The ‘Blue D’ disc marker can be seen towards the top of the cab side. At Bentley Heath, the quadrupling of the line is nearly complete with only the ballast to be laid on the new outer relief tracks.

Locomotive No. 3001 was built in Glasgow at the Hyde Park Works of the North British Locomotive Co. Ltd. (NBL Works No. 22105) for the Railway Operating Division of the Royal Engineers for service in France during the later stages of the First World War. Note, the oval builders plate can be seen on the wheel splasher in the photograph. This locomotive was part of order No. L710, issued in September 1918 for twelve locomotives, based on the JROD Robinson heavy freight design for the Great Central Railway (Class 8K 2-8-0). In total, 521 of this design of locomotive were built for the ROD. between 1917 and 1920. The ROD. numbered this locomotive No. 2009, but when the war ended in November 1918, none of the locomotives of this Lot had seen service in France.

The Government desperate to recoup the costs, immediately began to dispose of the surplus locomotives and in May 1919, the Great Western Railway purchased twenty of the virtually new locomotives, including No 2009 under their Lot 215 and after some basic Swindonisation, including a fresh coat of green paint, these locomotives were added to stock during June 1919. No 3001 was known to have been allocated to Tyseley (TYS) Shed in December 1921, but at the Grouping in the following year was allocated to Llanelly (LLY) Shed in Wales (May 1922). When built the longevity of the locomotive was not a priority and No.3001 had been constructed with a steel firebox, so in April 1927 a new boiler (lettered MB) with a copper firebox, Swindon superheaters, top feed and Great Western Railway style safety valves was fitted to No.3001.

Automatic Train Control (ATC) was also fitted at a date between March and August 1931, but due to the steam brake arrangement this was a modified version, which only gave the audible warning when passing an adverse distant signal and did not automatically apply the brakes. No. 3001 was known to have been allocated to Tyseley (TYS) Shed in December 1934 and to have been allocated to Oxley (OXY) Shed in December 1938. No.3001 was finally withdrawn from this shed in August 1946. Despite not having a Great Western Railway pedigree these locomotives of the 30xx class had made a useful contribution and were considered to be dependable workhorses. The class’ average mileage exceed 500,000 miles per locomotive at withdrawal.

Robert Ferris

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