517 1900s Birmingham Snow Hill
Great Western Railway George Armstrong '517' class 0-4-2 Tank No. 517. Built at Wolverhampton in Apr. 1868 and withdrawn in Feb. 1934. It is often forgotten that the GWR's principal 'other' works was at Wolverhampton. All 156 of the diminutive but highly successful '517s' were built there and the class prototype No. 517 is seen at Birmingham New Street in the early 1900s. Any similarity between this 1868 design and the Charles Collett '14xx' class of 1932 is purely developmentally deliberate!
© Steve Armitage Collection