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GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton
Hatton Bank: gwrhb2675
Great Western Railway 0-6-0PT 655 class pannier No 1748
ascends Hatton Bank on the Down Main Line with a class K freight train (see
Headcodes) in the Summer of 1939. In the
rear the smoke from the Banking Engine (a 51xx class prairie) can be seen. Most
of the wagons marshalled at the front of the train appear to be a mixture of
empty private owner open wagons, while the loaded wagons are located towards
the rear of the train.
No 1748 was built in July 1892 at the Great Western
Railways Stafford Road Works at Wolverhampton as part of lot A3. The
locomotive started as a 0-6-0 Saddle tank with a boiler operating pressure of
140lbs giving a tractive effort at 85% of 15,285lb. In this format the
locomotive had a 1,000 gallon saddle tank and the maximum axle weight was
13tons, 18cwt. In October 1920 a larger P class boiler operating at 150lb was
fitted and this increased the tractive effort at 85% to 15,935lbs. The saddle
tank capacity was also increased slightly to 1,120 gallons and the maximum axle
weight increased to 14tons, 11cwt. The compact saddle tank arrangement which
wrapped around the boiler became problematic once the Great Western Railway
adopted the more efficient belpaire firebox with its rectangular shape and
pannier tanks were fitted instead. It was found that pannier tanks had the
added advantage of reducing the centre of gravity of the locomotives giving
greater stability, which allowed them to safely operate at greater speeds.
No1748 was fitted with a new P class boiler and belparie firebox in September
1927 and re-entered traffic the following month with pannier tanks capable of
holding 1,200 gallons. This boiler operated at 180 lb pressure increasing the
tractive effort at 85% to 19,120 lbs (power group B). The boiler was a
superheated type, but this was found to be superfluous and the superheating
elements were later removed. The bunker was also extended to carry three tons
of coal and in this form the maximum axle weight was now 15tons, 5cwt (route
colour Yellow). See Engine Map
for details about the Great Western Railway locomotive classification
system.
No 1748 was initially allocated to Much Wenlock shed, which
was a sub-shed of Wellington shed (WLN) and was allocated there at the
grouping. After being converted to a pannier tank No 1748 was known to be
allocated at Stourbridge Shed (STB) in both January 1934 and 1938, but was
withdrawn from Wellington Shed in February 1946.
Robert Ferris
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