GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Knowle & Dorridge Station: gwrkd1008

GWR 2-8-0 No 7247 is seen at the head of a Class H through freight service as it approaches Lapworth on the Up Main line with the goods yard connection seen on the right 5th October 1957. Built as No 4244 at Swindon works in August 1938 it remained in service until it was withdrawn in March 1963 from Aberdare shed to be scrapped in June 1965 by J Cashmore of Newport.

The 2 - 8 - 2 tank was first envisaged in Churchward's Standardisation Plan of 1906 but due to fears that the locomotives would not be able to cope with the sharp curves found in the Welsh railway system, it was not built. In response to this, the '4200' 2 - 8 - 0 tanks were constructed instead. It was only after a decline in coal traffic resulted in the 2-8-0's being put into store that Collett rebuilt some as an experiment to the 2-8-2T configuration. Courtesy of 'Great Western Archive'.

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