“Royal” visitor to the Black Country

THIS photograph was taken at Stourbridge engine sheds in 1910 and it shows one of the Great Western Railway’s passenger locomotives.

Number 3050 Royal Sovereign was one of the 3031 Class, also known as the Achilles Class that was designed by William Dean at the end of the Victorian era.

Dean began his career at the GWR’S Stafford Road works in Wolverhampton, as a 15-yearold apprentice to the engineer Joseph Armstrong. Over the next eight years Dean attended night classes at Wolverhampton Working Men’s College. In 1864 Joseph was promoted to Chief Locomotive Engineer at Swindon and his brother George Armstrong replaced him at Wolverhampton with Dean as works manager. Four years later Dean followed Joseph Armstrong to Swindon to become his chief assistant. When Joseph died suddenly in 1877, William Dean succeeded him.

Today, Dean is chiefly remembered for his Bulldog and Duke Class locomotives. This example, the 3031 class, had rather a chequered history.

The first locomotives were built in 1891 and the first eight of them were broad gauge and were converted to standard gauge the following year.

Originally, the class had a 2-2-2 wheel configuration. The large driving wheels in the middle, 7 feet 8½ inches, restricted the size of the boiler, so the boiler was made longer. This put more of the engine’s weight over the front wheels, making the 3031 Class unstable, particularly at high speed.

Derail

In September 1893 3021 Wigmore Castle was pulling an express service when its front axle broke causing it to derail. Subsequently, the entire class was rebuilt as 4-2-2 and all new locomotives that followed.

Although these engines were fast they were quickly superseded by more efficient designs. Initially they ran routes between London and the west of England but once a bigger turntable was installed at Wolverhampton they were employed between Wolverhampton, Birmingham and London and Worcester to Oxford.

3050 Royal Sovereign was built in February 1895 and in 1901 its name was briefly transferred to number 3373, the Atbara Class locomotive that was used to haul Queen Victoria’s

funeral train from Paddington to Windsor.

Royal Sovereign was one of the last of its class to be withdrawn from service, in December

1915, after which it was scrapped.

There were no survivors of the 3031 Class, although a static replica of 3041 The

Queen was built in 1982 and displayed at Windsor.

In 2008 Hornby released a 00 gauge model of 3050 Royal Sovereign.

IT’S Mothers Day this weekend, or Mothering Sunday, to use its more traditional title, held on every fourth Sunday in Lent.

Originally, people were encouraged to return to their mother church, where they were baptised, or to their nearest cathedral, the mother church of their diocese, but in the 20th century the day has evolved into a celebration of all mothers.

We’ve had a delve into the Bugle’s picture archive and blown the dust from this selection of photographs from Mothers Days in the 1970s. Is there anyone you recognise?

The fourth Sunday in

GWR 3050 Royal Sovereign at Stourbridge in 1910

1972 Children at Yew Tree Infants School, West Bromwich, were not content with sending Mother’s Day cards.they went a step further and baked about 500 cakes for a party at school for their mums. All of the 140 children helped with the baking for the party, which was the idea of Miss J. Smith, the headmistress

The Sandwell Mail asked children up to the age of 14 to say why they thought their mum was the best and offered prizes of pens for the best. Left, Anita Jones, aged 13, of Simon Close, Tipton, nominated her mother, Dorothy Jones. Right 12-year-old Andrew Ford of Oak Road, West Bromwich, nominated his mother, Dorothy Ford