LMS Route: Birmingham West Suburban Railway

Bournville Shed: mrb1565

Ex-MR 3P 0-6-4T No 2036 is seen inside the roundhouse at Bournville on Sunday 2nd June 1935. It was one of a class of forty Deeley designed suburban tanks, all built in 1907 at Derby. They had taken over suburban workings in Birmingham and Manchester from the smaller engines previously used. They were also tried out on the London, Tilbury & Southend Railway (taken over by the Midland) in 1913-4, but had failed to out-perform the LTS 4-4-2Ts. The nickname 'flatirons' was given to them because the side tanks were thought to look like the flat domestic irons used in people's homes. Fowler thought them worth rebuilding with his 'G7S' Belpaire superheated boiler, the type fitted to his standard 4F 0-6-0s & 2P 4-4-0s. This rebuilding took place in the years 1920-7. Stanier, his successor, was not impressed by them and they were all withdrawn in the years 1935-8, this one in 1936.

John Dews

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