GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Leamington Spa - GWR Locomotives: gwrls2025a

Close of up of image 'gwr2025' showing one of the station's water cranes located at the southern end of the up and bay platforms. The other platform mounted water crane was located at the end of the northern end of the down platform. This allowed locomotives to be replenished while they waited at the station. This water crane is a standard Great Western Railway design with an eight inch diameter horizontal pipe which could be swung to either side of the platform using a chain. The six foot long flexible leather hose at the end of the pipe would then be placed into the water tank, before the handle at the base of the crane was turned to regulate the flow. A hopper drain (with a one foot, ten and a half inch diameter at the top) was provided for the hose when it was not in use. To prevent the water in the crane's pipework from freezing a fire grate (popularly referred to as a fire devil) was provided. This had a long fork-ended stovepipe to direct the heat on to the crane's pipework. In the late 1930s the introduction of larger capacity tenders with the new locomotives required the pipework on many water cranes to modified by welding in a new piece of pipe, which cranked the pipework upwards to give it additional height.

In the foreground the track contains a diamond crossing with an outside slip creating what was called a ‘single compound’ switch. This allowed access to the trailing crossing from the down main line in addition to the down platform line.

Robert Ferris

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