GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Leamington Spa Station: gwrls821a

This close up of image 'gwrls821' shows an unidentified GWR '388 class' or 'Standard Goods' 0-6-0 and an unidentified GWR 2-4-0 at the south end of the station on 5th May 1911. The GWR 388 class was a large class of 310 0-6-0 goods locomotives built by the Great Western Railway. They are sometimes referred to as the Armstrong goods to differentiate from the Gooch goods and Dean Goods classes, both of which were large classes of standard goods locomotives.

The 388 class were built in several batches between 1866 and 1876; many locomotives were given numbers from recently withdrawn locomotives so they do not run in a series or even in order of construction. To solve a shortage of broad gauge motive power twenty locomotives were converted to broad gauge from 1884 and reconverted to standard gauge in 1892. This particular locomotive has a number thought to begin with '4'.

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