GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Moor Street Station: gwrms1942

A road accident in Birmingham was reported in the May 1913 Great Western Railway Magazine – 'On April 1st, as a Great Western two-horsed goods van conveying a load of bags of lime, was crossing a bridge spanning the River Rea, near Birmingham, a portion of the bridge gave way, and the vehicle, horse and driver fell into the river. Fortunately the bridge was only a few feet high and the water was not deep. The driver escaped serious injury, although he was sitting in an elevated position on the wagon when the accident happened. Ready assistance was forthcoming, and one of the horses was saved, but the other, being held down by the weight of its fellow, was drowned. A number of the bags of lime were thrown into the water and others were more or less saturated.'

A large number of two-horse vans of this type were produced at Swindon Works from 1912 (Drawing number 46327) and they were allocated to the main Goods Yards. They were solidly constructed with a carrying capacity of four tons, ten hundredweight and many lasted for over thirty years. Four iron hoops allowed the load to be covered, but the driver's seat was forward of this in an exposed position. The twelve spoked wheels, which were a feature introduced about this time to all Great Western Railway carts, were termed ‘Artillery’ pattern, as they were designed to work even after the loss of two or three spokes.

The exact location of this accident is not known, but the river Rea runs from the south of Birmingham through Digbeth, just to the east of the city centre, and on to Nechells where it joins the river Tame. Today the river Rea is culverted making its route difficult to follow.

Robert Ferris

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