GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Leamington Spa: gwrls237b

This close up of image 'gwrls237' shows the approach road to the original locomotive shed and the water tank. There were two roads accessing the shed, they both commenced from the line running alongside the North signal box (seen above) with one line running to the left of the water tank with the other running to the right and then curving away to the left past the water crane. The line that ran to the left of the water tank was intersected by the turntable which would have been located the other side of the water crane and the piles of ash and clinker. In the middle of the photograph is a timber rail denoting the limits of the shed. In the distance can be seen the passenger footbridge and a 'parachute' water tank.

The locomotive is thought to be a GWR 2-4-0 which has been given the right away to run light engine on the down main. The van standing alongside the water tank is a guards van. Robert Ferris writes, 'The end nearest the camera is the non veranda side of a GW standard brake van (telegraphic code name TOAD). The central position of the stove pipe chimney stack makes it a diagram AA11 or earlier (AA12 onwards had a off set stack). I can see no other distinguishing features to tie it down further. The AA11 or earlier diagram dates it to pre-1913. The most common TOAD in this period was the diagram AA3 of which 840 were built between 1889 and 1901, but there were two types a 16 ton and a 20 ton version. The weight was made up by loading scrap iron as ballast weight into the hollow chassis, so the external design was identical'.

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