Photo of 44186 at Fenny Compton (see photo section)

[Barry Taylor]

I have recently purchased a photo (see SMJ photo section) showing 4F 44186, and on the back it states that it is at Fenny Compton on the Railway Enthusiasts Club 'South Midlander' special of 24/4/1955.

We have all seen plenty of photos of this tour on the SMJ, but always with GW 4-4-0 9015 on the front - and also facing the other way towards Stratford. This picture is at Fenny Compton looking west - on the original you can just see the up platform in the background beyond the coaches, and the signal above the train, and the points to the goods yard, also confirm it.

But - there are only two coaches, and the loco is on the wrong end - the train definitely arrived at Fenny from Banbury behind GW 9015, and also went forward with it to Stratford. A photo at Ettington also shows that it had 4 coaches.

So just what is happening here? Robin Cullup and I have discussed this over the last few days and think that we know the answer - can anyone else come up with a solution and hopefully confirm our suspicions?

[Jim Goodman]

Hello,

My guess would be that in1955 there was still only a very short exchange siding between GWR and SMJ, and they could only do it two coaches at a time.

I can't explain why a 4F was used except that it would have required a very complicated shunting operation using just one loco but, luckily, 44186 was on hand to help out.

I would like to know the answer though!

Jim.

 

 

[John Jennings]

As Jim has stated at that time the interchange was only possible via a short "kickback" siding that normally exchanged a few short wheelbase trucks at any one time. It would have been necessary to split the passenger train. The use of the 4F is almost certainly because it was requisitioned from Northampton (or possibly Woodford) because those sheds had crews with the knowledge of Fenny Compton yard. The nearest sheds at Leamington and Banbury (both WR) would not have men with that knowledge as they had no "turns" on the ex SMJ route at the time. It is possible that the 4F was already out somewhere on the line that day on an engineering train as it was a weekend and was sent down to Fenny Compton for the job.

[Dick Bodily]

44186 was definitely allocated to Northampton up until Oct 1955, when it was transferred to Crewe South. Woodford was still strictly an Eastern Region ex LNER shed with J11 Pom Poms as its 0-6-0s back in 1955 and in fact never had 4Fs, but did have a few 3Fs for a short while around 1959. Not that many Northampton crews were signed for as far as Fenny Compton but there were crews who still signed on at Blisworth and they would have been, so it was most likely either a Blisworth or Northampton crew. At the time Woodford Number 4 link were working night time steel trains as far as Broom but their usual steeds would have been WD 2-8-0s (see the Albert Fennell page on this website) and they would have bypassed Fenny yard.

[Barry Taylor]

Thanks Jim / John / Dick for your responses - Robin and I came up with much the same answer after a bit of thought and discussion.

But what was the precise sequence?

There is another photo of 9015 backed into the exchange siding with at least three coaches visible, railway staff positioned alongside the second coach, and a cloud of steam (presumably 44186) at the rear.

Either 9015 backed the whole train through the junction and into the siding where 44186 was positioned waiting, or 44186 was attached to the rear first  .Once in the siding - the train was split, then 9015 drew forward again onto GW lines , releasing 44186 to push two coaches out onto the SMJ up line (the picture shows this in progress)

9015 then repeated the process into the exchange siding, and ran forward out onto the SMJ up and then across onto the down, and through to the far end of the station, then backing down to rejoin the other two coaches again.

Were the passengers tipped off onto the GW platform, or allowed to stay on board?

Some performance - lots of overtime on a Sunday when very little else would have been happening on the SMJ! You can just see that being tolerated today for a railtour.

My guess is that 44186 was sent out from Northampton specially - although I do have notes of 4F's going out from there to Fenny Compton on pway work on Sundays (even being relieved by another loco and men halfway through the day!), so it might just have been there anyway.

Be nice to have an eye-witness account of what went on, and how long it all took.