Castle class 4-6-0 No 4074 Caldicot Castle passes Friars Junction near Old Oak Common with a down express in 1924.

Peter Keslake says "This view of 4074, "Caldicot Castle , the second true "Castle" is dated 1924 so the locomotive would be just a few months old, having emerged from Swindon in December of 1923, four months following the first of the class, namely 4073 "Caerphilly Castle", built in August 1923.
The nameplate looks rather strange, and it could possibly be that the actual brass lettering has not yet been applied as this did happen some times with a new locomotive running for a short time with blank nameplates.
The first forty "Castles" were initially allocated to Old Oak Common, Newton Abbot and Plymouth's Laira Motive Power Depots for use on the Top Link passenger workings between Paddington and the Westcountry, with Old Oak having no less than twenty six, Newton Abbot having three and Laira eleven.
In the late nineteen twenties, however, as the "Kings" entered service the "Castles" became more widely dispersed over the Great Western network, examples being based as far afield as Cheste , Penzance, Landore and Carmarthen."


Photo: A.L.P. Reavil/Rail Archive Stephenson