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GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Bentley Heath Crossing: gwrbh1612

Photographed on the up line between Widney Manor and Bentley Heath on 28th September 1910

Photographed on the up line between Widney Manor and Bentley Heath on 28th September 1910, a Great Western Railway Standard Goods or '388' class 0-6-0 locomotive carrying a class J headcode, indicating a through freight train. The quantity of coal piled high above the tender rails indicates that the engine has only recently been coaled. The standard goods class was introduced by the Great Western Railway's Chief Mechanical Engineer Joseph Armstrong in 1866 and became a large class, with 310 locomotives being built under eighteen different lots during the next ten years. This marked an end of the use of outside locomotive contractors until the three French compound 4-4-2 locomotives were purchased in 1903-5. The standard goods class had 5 foot wheels and 17 inch cylinders. As built the locomotives had a variety of boilers designs fitted, but these were rationalised to the standard No 6 boiler (class O), which was 11 foot long.

This standardisation allowed parts to be interchanged, but this did not mean that they were identical and incremental improvements both internally and externally occurred. Thus although a standard, the boilers appearance varied. At regular intervals boilers had to be replaced and although some boilers were reconditioned and reused, most were changed and a new boiler reflecting the most current design thinking of the time was fitted. Records of each boiler change were kept and this is often the best guide to identifying a locomotive, when photograph date is known and the cab side plate or buffer beam numbers are difficult to read. The boilers can be identified by their shape, firebox type and the positioning of external fixings such as the dome, chimney and safety valve. The boiler on the locomotive in the photograph is a round top parallel boiler with a large brass dome towards the front. This type of boiler (designated S2) was the standard Swindon boiler design between 1884 and 1894. It is normally associated with flush smokeboxes and clackboxes on the firebox sides.

The boiler barrel was of two equal rings with the dome towards the rear of the front ring. From 1894 the standard Swindon boilers had their domes repositioned closer to the firebox on the front of the rear ring and this arrangement is designated S4. From 1901 the more efficient belpaire firebox was introduced and depending on the dome position these are designated either B2 or B4. No new B2 boilers were constructed, but it is thought that several of these were rebuilt from reconditioned S2 boilers. The boiler change records show that forty six of the standard goods class locomotives had a S2 boiler in 1910, but the closest match to the buffer beam number on this photograph is No 891. This locomotive was built at Swindon works in February 1874 as part of lot 35 and received a S2 boiler in September 1893. In March 1916 this was changed to a belpaire type boiler (B4). Locomotive No 891 was withdrawn from traffic three years later in August 1919.

Robert Ferris

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