Early Midland Days

Family influences

My father obviously took an interest in steam engines, as he told me that London Midland & Scottish Railway locomotives, consequent on the nationalisation of the railway system, had 40000 added to their pre-grouping numbers. He particularly remembered seeing old Johnson ‘2F’ 0-6-0s Nos. 3056 and 3062. Naively, he thought they had been reincarnated as Ivatt ‘4’ 2-6-0s, a class which for some reason I had heard nicknamed ‘Doodlebugs’. However, an inspection of my first Ian Allan Locoshed book showed that they were allocated to sheds in Eastern Region territory, so that assumption seemed flawed.  Years later I came across a reprint of an early Ian Allan ABC of LMS locomotives, which gave pre-nationalisation numbers for what in fact were Johnson ‘2Fs’, renumbered in BR days into the 58000 series. No. 3062, a stalwart of Barnwood MPD, became No. 58206 (it had been MR 1444 prior to 1907). This loco was around until its withdrawal in July 1957 (in an old Trains Illustrated there is a photo of it on a ballast train at Cheltenham Lansdown). It was replaced subsequently by No. 58165 (formerly 2992: pre-1907 MR 1224), although that loco was shedded away at the end of 1958      [ref: 1].

My grandfather, who was an early photographer, must have taken an interest in transport too. One particularly interesting film negative I retrieved from his photographic collection dates from around 1908. It shows MR 2-4-0 No. 138, a Johnson rebuild of a Kirtley locomotive, standing in the up main platform at Gloucester Midland station. Whilst the loco displays an earlier style brass number and Midland crest, the number itself is post-1907 number, previously being MR 1081. In that year, the Midland Railway introduced a locomotive renumbering scheme which carried on through the creation of the ‘Big Four’ into Nationalisation in 1948. On the formation of the LMS in 1923, ex-MR locos had retained their numbers. London & North Western Railway locos had 5000 added to their original numbers, whilst locomotives from the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway, the Caledonian Railway, and other smaller companies absorbed by the LMS in 1923 were numbered from 10000 upwards. Grandpa also possessed a print of a Kirtley 0-6-0 crossing Lower Tuffley Lane bridge with a southbound freight.

[Between 1854 and 1870 Kirtley 6’ 8” 2-2-2s were used (120-9 batch) on passenger trains in the Gloucester area, along with 2-4-0s (820-90). By 1880 Johnson’s 1282 Class 2-4-0s (1282-96) were common up to 1919 alongside, from the 1890s, the Johnson 4-4-0 class 2s and 4-2-2s (673/9 being mentioned). From the 1910s Deeley Class 3 4-4-0s (700-19) were working expresses followed by Compounds from 1924 (Bristol had 1028-32 allocated), and finally ‘Jubilees’ from 1938. The onset of WWII also resulted in the loan of SER locos, including F1 ’Jumbo’ 4-4-0s on local trains, and Drummond LSW K10 4-4-0s, with 137/8 allocated to Barnwood, and 135, 388/9 to Barrow Road). Interestingly, the GWR also received some foreigners at this time, with up to 8 LNER J25s being allocated to Horton Road from 1940; and SR I3 4-42Ts 2089/91 and N15X 2332] [ref: 2].

A Midland Railway Kirtley 0-6-0 heads a southbound freight across Tuffley Lane at the turn of the 20th Century. The slopes of Robinswood Hill can be discerned between the tender of the locomotive and the first wagon [photo: H C Baldwin collection].

Midland Railway Johnson 2-4-0 No. 138 stands at the up platform at Gloucester Eastgate about 1908     [photo: H C Baldwin collection].

My father also told me he had seen a Fowler ‘3’ 2-6-2T No. 40040, one of the class fitted with condensing gear that were normally employed through the tunnels on the Widened Lines from London St Pancras to Moorgate. It was certainly on Barnwood’s books in September 1950, apparently for use on the Ashchurch – Great Malvern branch prior to its truncation to Upton-on-Severn in 1952. A Stanier ‘3’ 2-6-2T, No. 40116 was also allocated to Barnwood shed for a short time in 1949.

[I have also seen a publicity photograph, dating from 1936 showing a Stanier ‘5’, No. 5093 bearing a 22B shedplate, although as far as I can ascertain, Gloucester never had any Black 5s allocated].

Docks & Wagon Works

In those early days, I remember walking with my grandfather to Gloucester Park, and crossing the footbridge that ran from Weston Road over the branch line that provided access from California Crossing to Gloucester Docks beyond Sudbrook crossing where Southgate Street made its junction with Bristol Road and Stroud Road. It was officially known as the High Orchard branch and dated from 1848. We often saw the docks shunters about their business adjacent to Fielding & Platt’s foundry in Baker Street, sometimes even crossing the Canal over the Llanthony Road swing-bridge towards the GWR Docks Branch. The oldest one I remember seeing was a true MR loco, 0-4-0T No. 41523, which was withdrawn from Saltley shed (21A) by April 1955. There was an interesting report in that month’s Trains Illustrated to the effect that a Caledonian ‘Pug’, No. 56020 had been seen on 21A, and was believed to be a replacement for dock work in Gloucester. However, the locomotive never materialised and was condemned instead. There is also a record of LMS 0-4-0ST No. 1540 (later BR No. 47000) in use at High Orchard in 1933, not long after it was built, presumably on test. However, I have no information on the outcome of this trial [see ‘Steam routes around Gloucester’: S Mourton, Runpast Publishing, 2006]. 

Deeley 0-4-0T dock tanks superseded the earlier loco, regular performers being No. 41530 and No. 41537. No. 41530 was reported as being at Derby with an 85B (Horton Road) shedplate at the end of October 1955 but was withdrawn from 22B in May 1957. No. 41535 replaced No. 41530 and was still working in April 1962. I remember photographing No. 41537 in October 1959 and it was recorded still working in High Orchard in June 1962, not being withdrawn until September 1963. Another dock tank that served was No. 41534, reallocated to 22B from Staveley (41E) in October 1955.

 The High Orchard branch also served the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company (colloquially known as the ‘Wagon Works’) which had produced some interesting rolling stock since its establishment in 1860. GRC&WCo built 50 carriages with clerestory roofs for the subsurface lines of the Metropolitan District in 1923 (‘G23’ stock, later upgraded to ‘Q23’ stock), which I can remember riding in when I was first worked in London in 1963. One such car, No. 4248 is now preserved in the London Transport Museum, having been in service until 1971. Car No. 4184 is also in the LT collection at Acton.  A further order for 208 ‘Q38’ Hammersmith & City line cars was placed by London Transport in 1935. In all, over 400 underground carriages for the Hammersmith & City and District Lines (‘O’ and ‘Q’ stock) were delivered between 1937 and 1949. Lesser known is that in 1933 GRC&WCo built a prototype TDD-type trolleybus. Registered JN3822, it was hired to Southend, and operated successfully for 17 years. However, no further vehicles of this type were produced.

 Between 1935 and 1937 GRC&WCo produced bodies for streamlined GWR AEC railcars nos. 5 to 18. They also produced 104 carriages for the Toronto subway in 1954, as well as coaches for Nigeria and Rhodesian Railways. I can also remember seeing Rhodesian Railways carriages being taken out by rail across Gloucester Park, on standard gauge bogies. [ref: 3]

 GRC&WCo built Diesel Multiple Units for BR from 1957, the final order for diesel parcel cars (MPVs) being delivered in the spring 1960 and allocated initially to Cricklewood and Southall. The table below lists the DMUs produced from 1957 onwards:

GRC&WCo built many Standard Mark 1 coaches to C1 Restriction gauge for BR. Over the period 1954 to 1963 they built 312 standard passenger carriages for BR, and 56 BG Full Brakes. Two prototype vehicles were produced in 1957. They are listed below (* indicates four-a-side compartment seating) [ref: 4]

GRC&WCo also built wagons, which was how the company started in 1860. They made many standard 16-ton steel coal wagons for BR, and between 1958 and 1961 constructed Presflo and Cemflo bulk cement wagons for use on fast freight (listed below). Cemflo wagons were used in a rake for Blue Circle Cement’s block train which ran between Cliffe (Kent) and Uddingston. Some of these wagons were involved in an accident at Thirsk on 31 July 1967, when several became derailed and run into by a Kings Cross to Edinburgh express hauled by DP2.

However, it was not entirely unexpected when it was reported in December 1961 Trains Illustrated: “the Gloucester Railway Carriage & Wagon Co recently announced that it proposed to cease production of railway vehicles after completion of its existing contracts”. Nevertheless, the Wagon Works continued to produce bogies to Commonwealth specification for several years.

Ref: www.glostransporthistory.visit-gloucestershire.co.uk/gcrw_cement-wagons 

Midland Steam in the Gloucester area

Several ex-Midland Railway locos remained in use locally. Two Johnson ‘1F’ 0-6-0Ts shared duties on the Dursley branch from Coaley Junction until their withdrawal: No. 41720 (MR 210 pre-1907) in November 1956, and No. 41748 (MR 1690 pre-1907) in September 1957. They were initially replaced by WR 0-6-0PT No. 1605, and later by one of Barnwood shed’s Ivatt ‘2s’, Nos. 46526 and 46527. The branch celebrated its centenary in 1956 with a special hauled by No. 41748 but was to close on 8 September 1962 along with other local branches.

A Johnson ‘1P’ 0-4-4T, No. 58071 (MR 1377: pre-1907 2224) could also be seen occasionally at Gloucester when away from its usual haunt, the Ashchurch – Upton-on-Severn branch, until its withdrawal in June 1956. [the last of the class, No. 58086 which worked from Evercreech Junction to Highbridge, was seen on a trip to Bournemouth, and was not withdrawn until August 1960].  No. 58071 was replaced for a time from February 1957 by a Stanier 0-4-4T, No. 41900, although Midland ‘3Fs’ were also commonly used as branch engines as well. No. 41900 was still around in June 1960, before being reallocated to Coventry. However, by the end of the year it was reported in store at Wellington and was finally withdrawn in March 1962. The Upton-on-Severn passenger service did not last long, being withdrawn from 14 August 1961.

Fowler ‘4’ 2-6-4Ts from 21A and 21B (Bournville) also reached Gloucester very occasionally, particularly on a local train from the north at lunchtime on Saturday, although they were more usually employed on services on the Birmingham and Gloucester loop, via Evesham and Redditch; a line originally opened in 1868. The through service from Ashchurch ceased in October 1962 due to track problems south of Redditch, and the truncated service just to Evesham was withdrawn from 17 June 1963.

Fowler ‘4’ 2-6-4T No. 42419 leaves Evesham with the 11.38 am Redditch to Ashchurch train on 30 August 1962.

‘2P’ 4-4-0s were still quite active on local services between Birmingham, Worcester, and Bristol in the early nineteen-fifties. Bristol Barrow Road (22A) had an allocation, regular ones being No. 40426, withdrawn in October 1957, and No. 40486 in February 1957. In addition, No. 40332 went to 22A in Summer 1957, and by the time it was withdrawn in September 1959 was 77 years old!  Gloucester Barnwood had Nos. 40489, 40523 and 40540 on its allocation at this time.

Midland ‘2P’ 4-4-0 No. 40540 rests between duties as station pilot at Gloucester Eastgate on 27 August 1959.

Another ‘2P’ 4-4-0 No. 40489 is engaged in shunting manoeuvres in the carriage sidings between Eastgate and Central stations. The crew look on, bemused, as the photographer records the event for posterity. The date is 25 May 1959.           

In my view the most elegant MR locomotives were the 4P ‘Compounds’. In the mid-fifties, 22B still had an allocation which worked most local trains or acted as pilots for heavily loaded expresses. The table below lists those I recorded during the fifties:

Jeff Treece kept an invaluable record of ‘cops’ for 1957 and 1958, from which can be obtained an idea of the number of visiting ‘Compounds’ that could still be seen in Gloucester. The table below shows Bournville shed predominant, as ‘Compounds’ might be expected to be confined to working locals or piloting expresses by this time.    

No. 41123 was destined to be the last in service at Gloucester. One other memorable experience occurred on 15 April 1959, when the sudden appearance of No. 41157 (17A) running northbound light engine through Gloucester Eastgate led to a futile attempt to photograph it with my Box Brownie camera!

Barnwood’s last ‘Compound’ ‘4P’ 4-4-0 No. 41123 on pilot duty at Gloucester Eastgate on 1 November 1959, a dull foggy day. This evocative scene shows the footbridge linking Eastgate and Central stations with the tower of Gloucester Cathedral just visible through the gloom. The coal wharf is well stocked, and a horse-drawn coal merchant’s cart is still in use. The loco is coupled to a Standard BSO coach, new from Gloucester Railway Carriage & Wagon Co., and behind it an ex-GW gas reservoir tank wagon used to convey gas for lighting in stations without a mains gas supply and cooking in GW restaurant cars.

During 1959 I managed to photograph the three remaining 4-4-0s at Barnwood, ‘2P’ Nos. 40489 and 40540 and ‘4P’ No. 41123. By then, they had been relegated to pilot duties at Gloucester Eastgate, as Standard 4-6-0s had taken over their duties on local passenger trains, having been first introduced in that year. No. 40489 was withdrawn in August 1960, whilst No. 40540, the last MR engine on Barnwood’s allocation was in store on shed by early 1961, and finally withdrawn in March 1962. No. 41123 survived to be one of the last ‘Compounds’, being stored at the end of 1959 but not dispatched for scrap until 1960.

Other locos on the 22B allocation included ’Jinties’, ‘3Fs’ and ‘4Fs’. ‘Jinties’ were used mainly for yard shunting, although they acted occasionally as station pilot if a 4-4-0 was not available. Two members of the class, Nos. 47607/35 were reallocated away in early 1956, and were replaced by Nos. 47417/22. No. 47506 also worked from 22B.

‘Jinty’ ‘3F’ 0-6-0T No. 47417 pauses whilst shunting the coal wharves between Eastgate and Central stations on 23 May 1959

Barnwood’s ‘3F’ 0-6-0s were used mainly on local trip freights, and regulars through the fifties were No. 43520 (from early 1956), No. 43645, No. 43754 and finally, No. 43593. Barnwood also had a couple of WDs, Nos. 90565 and 90685 allocated from November 1959, ostensibly for use on turns over the S&MJR route to Banbury.

Johnson ‘3F’ 0-6-0 No. 43593 ambles under Cole Avenue bridge, Tuffley Junction with a short Gloucester-bound PW Engineers train on 4 September 1962.  This grand old lady would be withdrawn two months later.  

Schooldays at Tuffley Junction

In 1949 our family moved to one of the newly built prefabs in Fourth Avenue, Lower Tuffley, south of Tuffley Junction and adjacent to the four-track section towards Standish Junction. The railway ran at the bottom of the garden, with the bonus of the ex-GW lines in addition to the MR line with which I was familiar. As our family grew, in 1951 we moved again to Reservoir Road, some way from the railway line, and I started primary school at Finlay Road, so saw less of the railway for a while.

However, in the autumn of 1955, I started at Crypt School, and so had to walk every day past Tuffley Junction. With the advent of secondary school, new friendships developed, and I found that some of my fellow schoolmates, including Dave Keveren and Rob Baggott, were keen spotters. I spent time with Dave at his house in Southfield Road, which backed onto the railway. At the bottom of his garden, his father had erected a tree house from which we could train-spot. I still have several photos taken with my Coronet camera (which took 120 square-format films) from this location. One taken on 20 July 1958, when Sunday engineering works were taking place, shows No. 9471 running ‘wrong-line’ on a Chalford local; whilst later I obtained a shot of an unlikely double-headed combination of GW 0-6-2T No. 6669 and Stanier ‘8F’ 2-8- 0 No. 48271 working a civil engineers train back to Gloucester. I’ve also an early photograph of Bristol ‘Jubilee’ 4-6-0 No. 45577 Bengal working a northbound express taken from the same vantage point. It was fascinating to spend time in the garden on late summer evenings to catch visiting locos that we had missed earlier going down to Bristol returning north under cover of darkness. Interesting workings were two evening parcels trains that ran at about 9.45pm and 11.30pm. Once I remember seeing one of the LM Beyer-Garratts returning north light engine in the dusk one evening.

Dave also accompanied me on my first long-distance excursion in 1959 when we travelled overnight to Blackpool on an Illuminations excursion: we spent Saturday spotting at Leyland and returned home the next night. On leaving school Dave joined British Railways as a cleaner at Barnwood MPD. He was soon promoted to fireman and wrote to me after I had started work in London, providing some interesting insights into the state of steam in early 1963. Unfortunately, by this time diesels had taken over many express duties, and so much of the romanticism associated with steam turned into disillusionment.

So, was so special about Tuffley Junction? The location, about two miles south of Gloucester, was ideal for spotting, as a footpath ran parallel to the western side of the railway, passing close to the rear of Tuffley Junction signal box. Here a gang of us would meet on summer evenings at the playing fields adjacent to the line, separated by a fence made of old railway sleepers erected vertically, and known to us as ‘the boards’. By now, I was also friendly with Roger Speck and Jeff Treece from Central School. Here, in the lull between trains we would kick a ball around, or cycle around the fields. We were also attracted to a group of local girls who would hang about with their cycles and could become an added distraction when there was little railway activity!

The footpath ran from Bridge no. 102, where Stroud Road crossed the railway (we knew it as ‘Black Bridge’), to the ‘New Bridge’ (Cole Avenue). This bridge opened to road traffic in May 1959, completing Gloucester’s A38 Ring Road, and made a wonderful place form which to photograph steam in action. It remained a favourite location for photography. A footpath continued to Arlingham Road, where Jeff lived in a house backing onto an embankment holding sidings latterly used by the permanent way engineers.

After converging at Stroud Road bridge, Midland and Western trains ran side by side. The westernmost pair of the four tracks formed part of the Bristol – Birmingham trunk route of the Midland Railway which generated plenty of long-distance activity. Although the two easternmost Great Western tracks to Swindon became a secondary main line with the opening of the Severn Tunnel in 1886, they still provided access to Swindon from Wales and the Midlands, and so were useful for freight from South Wales and locos going to Swindon Works for overhaul. However, there was no direct connection between the two sets of lines at Tuffley Junction – this could only be achieved at Standish Junction six miles further south where the Western route made a connection with the Midland route towards Bristol.

Tuffley Junction signal box, built to LMS ARP standard (type 13) was a brick structure dating from December 1941, reached by a substantial track accessed through a gate from Stroud Road adjacent to the ‘Black Bridge’ [ref: 5]. The gate was usually left open, and in summer we could sit on a bank just inside, and very rarely got ‘ticked off’ for being on railway property. The signal box controlled a full set of signals on all four tracks as well as a passing loop for freight trains on the ‘up’ side of the Midland tracks. Midland signals were upper quadrant type, whilst the Western lines were guarded by lower quadrant semaphores. There were Midland signal boxes south of Tuffley Junction at Naas Crossing and Haresfield that controlled the adjacent level crossings: trains using Western tracks also had a loop on the ‘up’ side between Haresfield and Standish Junction.

Tuffley Junction signal box also controlled the junction for the Hempsted or ‘New Docks’ branch, opened by the Midland Railway in 1900, which diverged from the loop and fell away at a steep grade under a footbridge past the Crypt School to serve the Gas Works on Bristol Road. Originally, the line had crossed the Gloucester & Berkeley Canal, and continued to Monk Meadow on the western side of the canal, linking up with the ex-GW docks branch from Over Junction. However, this link was broken in 1938, as the link had not been used for at least fifteen years previously [ref: 6].

At school I soon began to take more notice of the comings and goings on both the Midland and Western lines. From the windows of the upstairs classrooms we could surreptitiously spot passing trains. By now I was familiar with the publications of Ian Allan, especially the ABC of British Locomotives, and Trains Illustrated (TI), published every month. Early memories from the Crypt included on one occasion seeing memorably numbered ‘3F’ No. 43210 crossing ‘Barton Gates’ (Barton Street level crossing) whilst being taken going to the swimming baths in Barton Street by bus (Bristol L-type single-deckers then). It was here that a spectacular crash had occurred in 1954, when runaway Standard ‘5’ 4-6-0 No. 73001 crashed through the gates into a Bristol KS bus, NAE38 (1525), working on route 10 from Coney Hill!

The fireman of ex-works ‘4F’ 0-6-0 No. 44211 pauses at Tuffley Junction to consult the signalman whilst working the morning trip to Quedgeley, the site of RAF 7MU (Maintenance Unit), on 28 August 1959. The milepost indicates 95 miles from Derby.  

A regular event occurring about the time of the mid-morning break at Crypt School was the return of the coal empties from Hempsted Gas Works to Gloucester Upper Yard, the full wagons having gone down from Upper Yard at 6.45am. This involved the short but steep climb from the Podsmead Road bridge up to the main line at Tuffley Junction. On occasion, the locomotive would slip to a stand if it had a heavy load and would have to reverse to take a run at the incline, producing fireworks in the process. This turn, a 22B ‘4F’ duty, continued into autumn 1965. One of Gloucester’s regulars was ‘4F’ No. 43924 which, after withdrawal from Barrow Road in June 1965, and time spent in Barry scrapyard was restored, and now works on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway. Traffic to the Gas Works finally finished in 1971.

There are more photographs in the vicinity of Tuffley Junction in Photo Gallery   

Barnwood ‘4F’ 0-6-0 No. 43887 attacks the short climb up the Hempsted branch from Gloucester gasworks to Tuffley Junction with a rake of coal empties, passing Crypt School to the left. The date is 4 July 1964.

An earlier shot of the ‘Gasworks’ as ‘4F’ 0-6-0 No. 43951 approaches Tuffley Junction with the empties from Gloucester gasworks on 26 August 1959.

One of the most regular performers of the larger LMS engines was Derby’s lone unrebuilt ‘Patriot’ 4-6-0, No. 45509 The Derbyshire Yeomanry which frequently worked the 7.35am Nottingham to Bristol. This train was due off Gloucester Eastgate at 11.7am, the loco returning on the 5.0pm departure from Bristol to York. No. 45509 was for some time the only ‘Patriot’ on the Midland but was reallocated to Newton Heath (26A) in 1960. Other unrebuilt ‘Patriots’ I observed included No. 45515 Caernarvon (which I photographed in June 1959) and No. 45519 Lady Godiva before she was allocated to Bristol Barrow Road in November 1958, along with No. 45504 Royal Signals and No. 45506 Royal Pioneer Corps. However, the Patriots did not last long at Barrow Road, and all were withdrawn on 17 March 1962.

A visitor to Gloucester, ‘Patriot’ 4-6-0 No. 45515 Caernarvon accelerates under Cole Avenue bridge at the head of the 10.20am Liverpool to Bournemouth on 13 June 1959. ‘Black Bridge’ can be seen in the background.

‘Jubilees’ were the biggest locos officially allowed through Gloucester, and ‘Black 5s’ the largest engines allowed between Mangotsfield and Bath Green Park. As well as the Barrow Road batch, ‘Jubilees’ from Derby (17A), Sheffield Millhouses (19B) and Leeds Holbeck (20A) were regular performers on LMR expresses. For a while one of the Derby ones, No. 45612 Jamaica was paired with a flush high-sided tender until it was transferred to No. 45568 Western Australia. Rarer ‘Jubilees’ turned up on occasion and several Carlisle Kingmoor (68A) and Glasgow Corkerhill (67A) ones were recorded during the late nineteen-fifties, deputising for Leeds Holbeck (20A) ones, particularly on the down ‘Devonian’.

As well as its stock of ‘Jubilees’, 22A also had a batch of Caprotti ‘Black 5s’, Nos. 44743 to 44747 inclusive, which regularly worked the 7.40am from Bristol to Bradford, although in April 1957 Nos. 44743-5 were sent to Derby in exchange for Standard ‘5s’ Nos. 73054/68.  Leeds Holbeck also had some double chimney versions, Nos. 44753 to 44757, which worked through Gloucester, on occasion powering the down ‘Devonian’ when 20A was short of ‘Jubilees’.

Gloucester regularly saw Hughes ‘Crabs’, including those at Burton-on-Trent (17B) fitted with Reidinger rotary poppet valve gear (Nos. 42818/22/4/5/9) which had a characteristic beat when working hard. Until the advent of ‘9Fs’ the ‘Crabs’ frequently worked the evening southbound fitted freight carrying beer from Burton-on-Trent. They also worked passenger trains especially on Saturdays in summer.

Of the more unusual locos, Beyer-Garratts made rare appearances in Gloucester, No. 47992 being recorded on Barnwood shed on 22 October 1955, and No. 47994 on 7 July 1956. I only ever saw five – Nos. 47967/72/4/82/94 – they were all scrapped by August 1957. One other unusual visitor on 7 April 1956 was ‘Britannia’ 4-6-2 No. 70032 Tennyson (9A) which came through Gloucester Eastgate on an Ian Allan excursion. Early trips to Birmingham were enlightened by the ascent of the Lickey Incline, the home of the Lickey banker, No. 58100 or ‘Big Bertha’. However, I do not recollect ever seeing it as it was withdrawn from service in May 1956, being replaced by ‘9F’ No. 92079, complete with headlight to assist with buffering up at night. Before my spotting days No. 58100 had the privilege of banking a train double-headed by two GW ‘Saint’ 4-6-0s up the Lickey Incline on 16 September 1950! A trial was also given to the huge ER Garratt, No. 69999, built by Beyer Peacock in 1925 to bank coal trains up Worsborough incline on the ex-GC route from Wath to Manchester through the Woodhead tunnel prior to the electrification and opening of the new tunnel in 1955. However, No. 69999 was reported dead on Bromsgrove shed in September 1955, and returned to Gorton, being scrapped in February 1956. The mainstay of the Bromsgrove bankers were the ‘Jinties’, until supplemented in February 1957 by Hawksworth 0-6-0PTs Nos. 8400 to 8406 following a trial in the previous September. They were still at work with No. 92079 through the summer of 1964.

The Nineteen-fifties

1959: Steam’s Indian Summer
Local closures
Summer of change
Rare visitors at Tuffley Junction

1960: Continued Change
Further rationalisation
Local observations