GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Lapworth Station: gwrl2500

Ex-Great Western Railway 2-8-0 47xx class locomotive No 4701 stands in the bay platform at Lapworth station on Sunday 8th October 1961. Behind the locomotive can be seen the rear of the Lapworth Signal Box and the crossover to the main lines and Up Refuge Siding. The bay platform Stop Signal had a route indicator which could display the following route options:
       Up Refuge Siding (lever 68) interlocked switches 39, 37, 33, 31, 41 & 42
       Down Relief Line (lever 71)
       Down Main Line (lever 74)
In the far distance a train can be seen in the up refuge siding. The are also several pressed steel mineral wagons in the Up Goods Sidings.

The 47xx class were designed as express mixed traffic locomotives with the same wheel arrangement as the 28xx class, but with the diameter of the driving wheels increased to 5 foot, 8 inches. The first locomotive (No 4700) was built in 1919 with a standard No 1 boiler, but this was found to be too small and a larger Standard No 7 was substituted in May 1921. As a result of the improved performance, No 4701 was built at Swindon Works in January 1922 with the Standard No 7 boiler and the remaining seven in the class were completed over the next sixteen months (lot 221). The boiler operated at 225 lbs and the two cylinders had a 19 inch diameter and 30 inch stoke. The cylinders were connected by outside steam pipes. The tractive effort at 85% was 30,460 lb, placing the locomotive in power group D.

These huge locomotives were initially paired with a 3,500 gallon tender giving them a total weight of 122 tons, but by 1933, the 47xx class locomotives had been provided with 4,000 gallon tenders, which increased the weight by a further 6 tons 14cwt. No 4701 was known to be paired with 4,000 gallon tender No 2446 in January 1934. This had been built in 1929 as part of tender lot 117. The locomotive’s maximum axle weight was 19 tons, 12 cwt, which restricted them to main lines (Route colour - Red).

The 47xx class locomotives were used on the regular nightly express vacuum freights between the capital and Bristol, Laira and Oxley Sidings (north of Wolverhampton), but could also be found on other goods duties and No 4701 was photographed at Chester in 1933 hauling a passenger train. In the summer of 1938, 47xx class locomotives were rostered on the following daily ‘Northern Main Line’ vacuum (class C) freight services:

No 4701 was initially allocated to Old Oak Common shed (PDN) in London, but transferred to Tyseley shed (TYS) in June 1933. The locomotive moved back to Old Oak Common shed in July 1935 and remained there until transferring to Southall shed (81C) in October 1962 for one month. No 4701 was withdrawn from Old Oak Common shed (81A) in September 1963 and sold to Coopers Ltd of Swindon in December of that year.

Robert Ferris

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