GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line

Birmingham Snow Hill - Grouping Period Locomotives: gwrbsh1230

Great Western Railway 4-6-0 29xx ‘Saint’ class No 2937 ‘Clevedon Court’ is seen running back as a light engine as it crosses over to the up through road to take forward an express service to Paddington in 1939. In the foreground joining the rail lengths can be seen a pair of two bolt fish plates. These were introduced circa 1934, but the company later reverted back to the traditional four bolt fish plates and they are rarely seen on heavily used lines such as those in Snow Hill.

This is the northern end of Snow Hill and in the background are the Northwood Street sidings, where carriage stock was stabled before being required. Partly obscured by locomotive No 2937 is a fifty foot long, externally planked and louvered milk van (telegraphic name – Siphon G) with gangway connectors. This van is probably to diagram O22, eleven of these were built in three lots between August 1926 and November 1928. They were used for parcels and newspapers as well as the diminishing milk churn traffic. Adjacent to this is a gas cylinder wagon (telegraphic name - Cordon) to diagram DD4, forty of these were built between March 1903 and January 1933. The nine transverse gas tanks had a capacity of 403 cubic feet and were used to replenish the tanks in the older gas lit coaches that were still in use at the time. Finally there is a typical Great Western railway brake van (telegraphic name – Toad). In the siding behind is a set of steel-sided close-coupled suburban coaches.

Locomotive No 2937 was built in December 1911 at Swindon Works as part of lot 185. These locomotives were the final development of the class. They carried a Churchward standard No 1 fully coned boiler (type D4) with a long smokebox and belpaire firebox. This boiler was fitted with a Swindon No 3 superheater (14 tubes / 84 element) and topfeed apparatus combined with the safety valve. The boiler pressure of 225 lbs gave a tractive effort at 85% of 24,395 lb and the locomotive was classified in power group C. The maximum axle weight was 18 tons restricting the locomotive to main lines and a few branch lines (route colour – Red). From November 1930, the ‘Saint’ class locomotives were gradually fitted with new front-ends (including cylinders and extension frames). This modification also included the fitting of outside steam pipes and for No 2937, occurred in June 1948.

No 2937 was initially allocated to Fishguard shed (FGD). In January 1921, No 2937 was known to have been allocated at Bristol shed (BL), but in May 1922, No 2937 was known to have been allocated at Exeter shed (EXE). In January 1934 and January 1938 No 2937 was known to have been allocated at Reading shed (RDG). Prior to nationalisation in December 1947, No 2937 was known to have been allocated at Hereford shed (HFD), also allocated there in August 1950 and withdrawn from there in June 1953.

After the short route to Birmingham was opened in 1911, Mr A Goodyear carried out a comprehensive study of the two hour express running, which included a superb run by ‘Clevedon Court’ with a gross load of 395 tons and this is reproduced below:

Robert Ferris

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