GWR Route: Hatton to Bearley and Alcester Branch

Bearley Station: gwrb780

GWR Collett 48xx class 0-4-2T No 4801 is seen standing at Bearley having arrived from Alcester on 16th September 1937 with Alcester branch auto trailer No 76. This engine was built at Swindon in 1932, renumbered 1401 in 1946 and withdrawn in November 1958. It was used in the film ‘The Titfield Thunderbolt’. Alcester was served by an Auto train, which shuttled up and down the Branch six times a day. Four of these journeys terminated at Bearley and two at Stratford. A single 70’ Diagram T auto trailer (built 1911) fulfilled the normal passenger accommodation requirements from the reopening of the Branch in 1923, until final closure. Notice that electric lights had replaced the oil lamps on the platforms. In the distance is the road stone crushing plant, which was constructed in the yard in 1936, adjacent to the pair of refuge sidings.

Robert Ferris

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