Shrewsbury’s central wales line sub-sheds

Stabled outside the former L&NWR single-road engine shed at Builth Road is Fowler LMS ‘4P’ 2-6-4T No 2394 on Whit Monday, 26 May 1947. New to traffic on 22 June 1933, at nationalisation, a little more than seven months hence, No 2394 would be a Swansea (Paxton Street) asset, that premises being the parent shed to Builth Road’s southern neighbour at Llandovery. As for Builth Road shed, the timber-built premises was sited immediately south of Builth Road station, was north-facing and was about 57 miles from its parent shed in Shrewsbury. Glimpsed behind the locomotive is the roof of an ex-L&NWR signal box from where a 22 chain-long spur to the Mid Wales route began and descended from the Central Wales line, heading to the left of this view to a meeting point with the former Cambrian Railways and then GWR owned line that linked to Llanidloes and Moat Lane Junction in the north and (via reversal) Three Cocks and Brecon in the south. Rail Photoprints Collection

Shrewsbury’s busy London & North Western Railway/LMS and Great Western Railway locomotive depots stood side-by-side on the same site alongside the companies’ joint main line from Shrewsbury to Hereford. The Shrewsbury area became part of the Western Region upon nationalisation and soon afterwards the two sheds were combined as a single depot with its motive power continuing to reflect the mixed company origins – the January 1960 allocation of 90 locomotives comprised 50 ex-GWR, 24 ex-LMS and 16 BR Standard engines. In early British Railways days the combined depot had five sub-sheds, all of ex-L&NWR origin and situated either alongside or on diverging routes from the former L&NWR & GWR joint main line heading south from Shrewsbury towards Hereford. Two of these, Ludlow (closed 1951) and Clee Hill (closed 1960), were covered in an article by the author in the September 2022 issue of Steam Days, so attention now turns to Craven Arms, Knighton and Builth Road.

These three sheds were located at the commencement of, or along, the ex-L&NWR Central Wales line (now known as the Heart of Wales line) from Craven Arms to Swansea (Victoria), although since its 1964 partial route closure at the southern end, passenger services run to Swansea (High Street) via a reversal at Llanelli. The just under 100 miles-long route was principally single line, w