GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Hatton Station: gwrhj107a

Close up of image 'gwrhj107' showing the waiting Stratford-upon-Avon train made up of 4 wheel passenger coaches and headed by an unidentified 3031 (Achilles) class 4-2-2 locomotive with a raised belpaire parallel boiler which has a large dome on the back section and a drumhead smokebox (BR5). The first of the class to be rebuilt with this type of boiler was No 3070 ‘Earl of Warwick’ in June 1910. The superior adhesion of the 4-4-0 locomotives saw the end of the 4-2-2 7ft 8in singles’ and it was uneconomic to convert them to a different wheel arrangement. Construction of 4-2-2 locomotives therefore stopped in 1899 and despite almost a third of the class being reboilered, all 80 had been scrapped by July 1915.

Robert Ferris

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