GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Handsworth & Smethwick: gwrhs2649

British Railways 4-6-0 Castle class No 7026 ‘Tenby Castle’ passes through Handsworth & Smethwick Station on the down main line in March 1958 with the Snow Hill (ex 1:15pm) to Birkenhead express. The footbridge would have originally had a protective sheet roof with valance edging.

The ‘Castle’ class locomotives designed by the Great Western Railway's Chief Mechanical Engineer Charles Collett in 1923, as a compromise to keep within the 20 ton axle load restrictions, proved to be the most powerful passenger locomotives of their day. The class eventually comprised 171 locomotives, including 16 reconstructed ‘Star’ class locomotives and could be found heading the express services across the Great Western Railway and British Railways (western region). The boiler operated at 225lb developing a tractive effort at 85% of 31,625lbs (Power Group D). For more details of the Great Western Railway classification system see Engine Map. Locomotive No 7026 was built after nationalisation in August 1949 at Swindon works as part of lot 367. In November 1049, No 7026 was allocated to Stafford Road shed (SRD) in Wolverhampton and spent most of her operational service based there. In October 1964, the locomotive was withdrawn from Tyseley shed (2A) after completing over 636,668 miles, to be scrapped by J Cashmore's of Great Bridge.

Robert Ferris

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