Many years after its glory days working the "Cheltenham Spa Express" between Gloucester and Paddington the renowned 5000 "Launceston Castle" was destined to be the oldest of the ten surviving "Castles" working out their last months at Wolverhampton's Oxley depot in what was to be the "Swansong" for the class in 1964 .
At that time Oxley required a number of the class to cover not only the express parcels workings , many of them overnight rosters , from the West Midlands to and from Paddington but additionally the Inter Regional passenger duties between the Midlands and the South Coast resorts , those duties invariably taking the " Castles " from Wolverhampton via Birmingham as far as Oxford from where a Southern Region engine would take over .
Summer Saturdays also saw 5000 and her sisters working down from Wolverhampton to Bristol on Holiday extra workings , those locomotives returning home northwards later that same day .
In order to increase Oxley's complement of " Castles " , therefore , "Launceston Castle " went to Oxley from Hereford Depot in October of 1963 , but once the 1964 Summer Services ended as the oldest " Castle " at Oxley she was an early casualty , being withdrawn in the October of that same year.