GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Rowington Troughs & Junction: gwrrj1478

Great Western Railway 2-6-0 43xx class mogul No.4320, with a class H ‘through freight’ train, drenches the first wagon and the permanent way with excess water overflowing from the 3,500 gallon tender, as the engine picks up water from the troughs. The date of this photograph is unknown, but it is likely to be prior to the mid 1930’s when the Great Western Railway changed the colour of their headcode lamps from Red to White. From 1936 the GWR lamp headcode system also changed and the arrangement shown on this photograph would have indicated a partially fitted class D freight train. A class H ‘through freight’ train would have had two lamps, one in the centre on the buffer beam and a second over the right hand buffer. These headcodes helped signalmen identify oncoming trains from a distance. No.4320 was built at Swindon Works in October 1911 and was the last of the first batch of twenty to be constructed (Lot 183). Even without a prototype this design was an immediate success and the class eventually numbered 342 engines. They were mixed traffic engines operating both goods and passenger turns, although their primary duty was working secondary freight traffic. Their Blue route classification meant that they could work over the majority of the Great Western Railway’s lines. It is known that No.4320 was allocated to Pontypool Road shed (PPRD) in 1921 and in 1934 was allocated to Basingstoke shed (a sub shed to Reading). In December 1947, prior to nationalisation, this locomotive was allocated to Cheltenham shed (a sub shed to Gloucester from 1936). In January 1949, No.4320 was withdrawn from Horton Road shed (GLO) in Gloucester and scrapped later that year at Swindon Works.

Robert Ferris

back