GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Leamington Shed: gwrls3978

At Leamington the locomotive shed was one hundred and eighty feet long with four roads for stabling twelve engines. Providing adequate clearance to avoid accidents was considered an important criteria in the design of locomotive sheds. Great Western Railway locomotives were typically eight feet, eight inches wide over the footplate and eight feet, eleven inches wide over the cylinders. The shed doorways were therefore designed to have a minimum width of thirteen feet, six inches, which gave about two feet, three inches clearance each side (this was considered sufficient for safety). The distance between the centres of the roads was fourteen feet, giving a five foot clearance, and sixteen feet where columns occurred between the pits, giving three foot clearance between locomotive and column. The total shed width was sixty-six feet.

Leamington was a dead end shed, but there were two pairs of hinged double doors at both ends of the shed. The door columns were eight inch by six inch steel joists with girders over (nine inch by three inch channels). The height from rail level to the underside of these girders was sixteen feet and between the girder and top of doors was a frame with lights. The wooden smoke troughs above each road continued through this and terminated in a bonnet. The large doors were three inches thick (one inch boards on two inch framing and was well braced). The doors needed to be shut in cold weather and shoot bolts were provided at the top and bottom of the doors. When open, strong doorstops were necessary to prevent the doors from swinging in the wind and causing damage or accidents. The standard Great Western Railway doorstop was a six by six inch post, five foot, six inches above ground and three feet below, strongly fixed. The doors were secured by either links and pins or a reliable automatic catch.

Against the north-east side wall of the shed was a lean-to building containing; Foreman office, Clerks office, passageway, Store room, Fitting shop, Enginemen mess room, Cleaners mess room and lavatories. This building was originally one hundred and sixty-six feet long by fourteen foot wide, but was later extended along the full length of the shed.

Robert Ferris

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