Ex-London & North Western Railway Beames 'G2' class 0-8-0 No. 9439. Built at Crewe in April 1922 as L&NWR No. 36 and withdrawn in December 1962 as BR No. 49439.

The soubriquets 'foggy nights' and swampy front' were the railwaymen's ironic names for the L&NWR 0-8-0s and this photograph illustrates why! Steaming merrily at the north end of the station in February 1931 against the familiar backdrop of the BTH (later AEI) building at Rugby, 9439 tries its best to obscure Sunlight Soap's £1000 guarantee of purity! Note the wagon in the background still in GC livery eight years after the grouping.

© Les Hanson-David Hanson Archive