GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Leamington Spa - GWR Locomotives: gwrls203

GWR 5101 class 2-6-2T Prairie No 5181 on a up passenger train in September 1935.

Number 5181 was built at Swindon in March 1931 and allocated to the Wolverhampton Division to work on the Birmingham suburban passenger services. This engine was known to be allocated to Tyseley in 1934. From 1957 onwards dieselisation of suburban services resulted in these engines being cascaded to pick-up goods and banking duties. No 5181 was withdrawn from Severn Tunnel Junction Shed (86E) in September 1962 and scrapped at Swindon in November 1962.

Few modifications were made to this class and the photograph shows No 5181 with the standard No 2 tapered boiler and low safety valve bonnet. This engine has a smoke deflector fitted to the top of the copper capped chimney, which is an unusual feature on tank engines.

The unganged clerestory coach appears to have eight compartments and could possibly be a diagram C22 coach, which were the last clerestories built on the Great Western. Forty of these ‘all third’ coaches were built between January 1903 and May 1904 for branch line traffic. When originally built these coaches had full running boards.

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