GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line

Birmingham Snow Hill - British Railways Period Locomotives: gwrbsh1281

Ex-GWR 4-6-0 King class No 6000 'King George V' arrives with an up excursion to be greeted by crowds of railway enthusiasts during the final days of the reign of the GWR's Kings. Built at Swindon works to Lot 243 in June 1927 No 6000 entered service on 29th June 1927 being allocated to Old Oak Common. After a short period on display No 6000's first public train was the Cornish Riviera Express on 20th July 1927. The King gained the bell on the bufferbeam as a result of participating at The Fair of the Iron Horse from 24th September to 15th October 1927. This was followed by a test run from Baltimore to Philadelphia via Washington on 17th October 1927 returning on 18th October. The Supervisor during this trip was William A Stanier, Principal Assistant to the Great Western Railway's CME, later Sir William Stanier CME of the LMS.

Returning to the UK on 26th November 1927 when it was unloaded at Cardiff docks No 6000 returned to traffic on 3rd December 1929 and it remained in service until it was withdrawn on 4th December 1962 having completed 1,910,424 miles to be assigned to National Collection and moved to Swindon Stock Shed. In 1964 it was towed to London Stratford works, which had originally been the planned base for restoration of engines in the National Collection, where it remained until 31st December 1966 when it was returned to Swindon in the trusteeship of Swindon Corporation, with a view to placement in Swindon GWR Museum. In March 1968 Peter Prior of Bulmer's Cider based in Hereford negotiated a sub-lease to operate the locomotive and after restoration work it was handed over to Bulmers on 13th November 1968.

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