On 12th September 1953 GWR Railcar No. W8W visited Welshpool with the Railway Development Association tour from Birmingham to the Welshpool and Llanfair Railway where they were accommodated in 4 open wagons hauled by No. 823 and topped and tailed with brake vans. The railcar was allocated to Stourbridge Junction and a very rare visitor to Welshpool, there being only two other recordings of them here, both associated with similar visits.

No. W8W had been built in 1935 initially being allocated to Stourbridge for working the Old Hill to Dudley services some of which extended to Snow Hill, like its sisters in the war years it migrated between sheds, returning to Stourbridge in 1947 for similar duties later extending to the Severn Valley line. Note the elderly GWR ‘Iron Mink’ vans fitted with replacement wooden doors and with ‘X’ and Welshpool brandings for internal use in the yard.

Vic Smith has traced three reports of GWR railcar workings to Welshpool in the 50’s. The other two possible dates are: 19 June 1954 for an SLS visit to the W&L worked by W14W, repeated on 26 June 1954 according to Six Bells Junction. But did this tour run on this date as there is no mention of it in the SLS Journal or any photos? Unit is unknown but it was not W14W which was on Buxton railtour duties on that day.
Peter Kerslake says 'Something of great interest on W8W has clearly caught the attention of the two well dressed and school uniformed lads over on the far platform. W8W from Stourbridge Junction had from being newly built in 1936 seen service for a short time at Bristol St . Philip's Marsh Depot as a spare unit for W10W and W15W working the services to Avonmouth, Portishead, Weston super Mare and even as far as Newport and Cardiff, all from Temple Meads. W8W has the pleasing later design of rounded cabs and the air horns are clearly visible below the very small buffers carried by the early units.'