GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Hockley and Duddeston: gwrhd700

Ex-GWR 2-6-0 'Mogul' No 6342 passes through the station on the middle road with a local down passenger train. The overhead gantry, originally hydraulic but later converted to electric, can be seen on the left. It always amused the writer to see that the cladding to the "crane" part of the gantry which sat on top had such a distinctive GWR character being very similar in shape to a GWR water tower.

Number 6342, a member of the 4300 class, was built in March 1923 at Swindon and lasted in service for just over 40 years being withdrawn from Shrewsbury in September 1962 but not scrapped at Swindon until April 1963.

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