GWR Route: Hatton to Bearley and Alcester Branch

Great Alne Station: gwrga1604

A Great Western Railway 0-4-2T class 48xx locomotive arrives at Great Alne station with an auto trailer. The 48xx class locomotives replaced the elderly 0-4-2T 517 class locomotives on the Alcester branch in 1933 and fitted with auto-equipment they operated the regular Auto-train passenger service on the branch until it closed. The single red lamp on the right of the locomotive's buffer beam indicates a Class K train, signifying a branch line freight train. On the Alcester branch there were two mixed trains each way during the 1930s and the GWR General Appendix to the Rule Book (1936) required these mixed trains to operate under freight train rules. Amongst the conditions this dictated were; the positioning of the passenger and goods rolling stock, and limiting the maximum speed to 25 mph. In the later Service Time Tables (1938 and 1939), however, both the Auto-trains and Mixed-trains on the Alcester Branch are indicated as operating as class B (Ordinary Passenger trains).

Robert Ferris

back