Two kinds of horse power at the goods depot
THIS old photograph was taken at the Great Western Railway goods depot in Great Bridge back in 1911 – on Wednesday, May 10, to be precise.
The workers at the depot were keen to show off the horsepower at their disposal and proudly posed with a pair of dray horses, used to deliver goods to the surrounding neighbourhood.
They would get a lot more horsepower from the steam locomotive behind them, number 1061, a GWR 1016 Class 0-6-0 saddle tank engine.
This loco was built at the Stafford Road works in Wolverhampton in 1871, so was 40 years old when the picture was taken.
All these locomotives had long service lives, with most racking up more than one million miles.
When first built, 1061 would not have looked the same as in this picture. The 1016 Class, designed by George Armstrong, originally had shorter water tanks that did not run the full length of the boiler and firebox and finished some way short of the cab.
New boiler
In March 1892, 1061 was fitted with a new boiler at the Swindon Works and that is likely when the full length saddle tank was fitted.
The working life of the 1016 Class was extended through a series of updates and modifications. 1061 was fitted with another new boiler in 1901, and again in 1904.
More radical change happened in 1925 with yet another new boiler fitted, along with a Belpaire firebox. The new firebox’s square shape meant that the saddle tank no longer fitted and so 1061 was reconfigured
with pannier tanks.
1061 ended its service life in 1932, after 61 years, when it was withdrawn and scrapped.
Opened
The Great Western opened its station at Great Bridge in 1866. The LNWR’S station was nearby and had opened in 1850 but both were confusingly named Great Bridge Station.
Wartime conditions and a decline in usage saw the GWR station close in 1915 but it reopened in 1920. Both stations continued to have the same name until nationalisation. They were renamed in 1950, with the former GWR station becoming Great Bridge South and the other was correspondingly renamed Great Bridge North.
Great Bridge South was closed down in 1964 and today very little of the site remains following extensive redevelopment and road building in the area. However, a section of the retaining wall to the goods depot has survived.