NORTHAMPTON
This month we focus our attention on the former East Midlands LNWR depot.
Unlike the other sheds we’ve covered in Shedcode Special to date, the early days of Northampton depot are ill-defined, with a site for outdoor stabling of engines on a bespoke siding appearing after 1849 and a small shed appearing soon afterwards in the 1850s. This facility was expanded in 1870 and again in 1874 upon the closure of the nearby Wolverton depot. After just seven years, the enlarged shed was taken up by carriage storage in 1881, and a new building – known as Bridge Street – was erected south of Castle Station, adjacent to the Grand Union Canal.
The latter single-ended shed was one of the standard London & North Western Railway (LNWR) large-depot designs, and featured ten roads, a 42ft turntable and coaling facilities. When built, it was given LNWR code No. 6, which changed to No. 5 after the opening of Bescot in 1892.
Curiously, despite its size, Northampton had no sub-sheds, although post-1923 and the Grouping it was merged and dual-controlled with Colwick, which closed in 1932.
Like other LNWR sheds, the allocation of engines to Northampton progressively expanded from approximately 16 in the 1860s, to 36 in 1925. The later shed had allocation for 40 locomotives, but it was not until the post-war period and nationalisation that the allocation began to increase once more.
Under LMS ownership, the depot received several improvements during 1938, including a new 60ft turntable to the rear, and a water softening plant. The rear offices were also improved – following a previous refurbishment costing £1,000 in 1927 – and the typically LNWR hipped shed roof replaced by a louvred one. Further modernisation took place in 1952 after nationalisation, with the installing of upgraded coal and ash plants and a 70,000-gallon water tank.
The engines allocated to Northampton were a typical mixed bag, featuring the omnipresent ex-LNWR ‘Super D’ 0-8-0s and Stanier ‘8Fs’, which had begun to arrive in the 1930s. Other types included ex-LMS Fowler ‘4Fs,’ ‘Black Fives’, former Midland Railway ‘2P’ 4-4-0s, a variety of small tanks including Ivatt 2-6-2 ‘2MTs’ such as Nos. 41218/219, and a scattering of antiquated Webb 2-4-2 tanks such as No. 46749.
The works carried out by BR may well have helped prolong the life of Northampton shed but with the dawning of the London electrification scheme work began to run down, and it finally closed its doors on September 27 1965.