Ex GWR 2-8-0 2836 at West Bromwich, 1960

Image: © Alan Murray-Rust Taken: Unknown

Passing under Wattville Road bridge with the former Birmingham Carriage and Wagon Works on the right. The large cylindrical objects on the right, which I had assumed to be tanks or silos, are in fact much more interesting. They are hydraulic accumulators, and when you look carefully at the picture it is possible to deduce what the hydraulics were for. To the left of the building are a number of railway wheelsets, so it is highly likely that the building was the wheelshop. In this there would certainly be some heavy duty hydraulic presses used to press wheels onto axles. (I am grateful to fellow Geograph member Chris Allen for pointing out their function.) The 2800 class was Churchward's standard large freight locomotive for the Great Western Railway, introduced in 1905. Some remained in service almost to the end of steam on the Western Region; 2836 survived until 1964.

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