The Bristol Railway Archive

I donÔÇÖt know of any regular working that would bring a B1 to Paddington, even less so hauling LNER stock. Furthermore, the fact that it is hauling LNER stock suggests that it originated on the ER; whilst it was not uncommon to see the odd LNER coach in Bristol in the 60s, for example, it would have been just that ÔÇô one coach in a rake.

I suspect it would have been a special working of some kind, although the Six Bells Junction site doesnÔÇÖt give any information. The other option, and this could have been a special or a normal timetabled service, is a train that had come down the GC and had been diverted from Marylebone or Kensington Olympia into Paddington, possibly due to an engineering occupation or a short-notice diversion through a derailment or other short term operational incident.

I donÔÇÖt know if anyone elseÔÇÖs eyesight is good enough to decipher the engine number (mine canÔÇÖt) and this may give us a clue as to where it came from. The other point I noticed is that the engine is carrying a non-GWR style train reporting number, and in those days that would usually have indicated a special working.

Not exactly "working on the Western Region", but 61264 ended up in Barry scrapyard, so was towed there.
Since restoration, that B1 has worked on the WSR, formerly part of the Western Region. Did it make it's own way there, or was it delivered by road?

I raised this isxsue on anothe forum to see if anyone there could shed any light on the B1 at Paddington.

There have been no replies on that subject yet, but somenody mentioned B1s occasionally turning up at Windsor after woring excursions from the ER. When coming off the GC they usually ran via Bourne End and Slough west curve. The engines were serviced at Slough depot.

There was a photograph in Modern Railways back in the 60s of a Crab taking Slough west curve with such a train, but I havent seen any photographs of B1s in the area