LMS Route: Evesham to Birmingham

Halesowen Junction: mrhj185

Ex-MR Kirtley double-framed 2-4-0 No 60 is seen at the head of a service travelling on the down fast line circa1931. Forty-eight Kirtley 800 class locomotives were built in 1870-1871 at the company's Derby Works. In the period 1876-1882 all were rebuilt by Kirtley's successor Johnson, with better boilers, larger cylinders, and cabs instead of weatherboards. The 800 class were main line engines that were highly regarded in their time, but it became difficult to find suitable work for them as more and more 4-4-0s were built. All were transferred to the duplicate list in the period 1898-1903, which involved the addition of "A" at the end of the number. Three were withdrawn before 1907, when the remainder were reinstated in the main stock list in the block 23-67. Twenty-five survived long enough to be taken over by the LMSR. The last surviving '800' and the only one to make it onto the LMSR duplicate list was No 20060, withdrawn in July 1936.

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