Double header at Reading General/ King and Hall

Here's a photo I found online.

It has been said that it was double headed due to the weight of the train, but it isn't pulled right up to the end of the platform which seems to scupper that. Safety valves are feathering indicating it's ready for the off rather than just arrived.

My theory is that the King was ailing and the Hall was the West End pilot added inside it (GWR style) for the pull over the Berks and Hants . The King would have been left on as it was a Laira King and was reckoned to make it home with a little help.

What do you think is happening?

A double headed King would be very rare I'd say and they would normally be able to handle anything thrown at them East of Newton Abbot.

 

It would need to have been a very heavy train to defeat a King. Possibly double headed to save a light engine path.

 

well, as I say it isn't pulled right to the end of the platform, so I doubt the weight was a factor.

Save a path? Possible, ....I assume the King would be the train engine, would there really be a LE movement of a Hall over that distance?

 

I too doubt that the King would need assistance. Moving engines to or from unbalanced workings, often over considerable distances, was quite common. Two engines wasn't always a sign that one alone couldn't cope.

 

yes, but that's not a long distance.... they were hardly going to stop a class one service en route to detach the Hall so it must have been there either because it was needed or because it was going to destination (Bristol or further west)

 

As I said, it could be over quite a distance. 5637, the Jubilee written off after the Harrow smash, was piloting 6202, although the latter was more than capable of working the train alone. The 5X had no return working from Euston to Lime St, over 180 miles, but was attached to cover the entire distance. I understand that this was not an infrequent occurrence.

 

possibly, although that was a 5XP which may have been needed...hard to see a Hall being needed that badly hundreds of miles away

 

The railway moves in mysterious ways. Sometimes locos were reallocated to sheds a long distance from their previous home.

 

Did any Swindon running in turns wind up at Reading ?.

 

Assuming that the GWR principle of the pilot engine being the inside loco, could it be a simple case that the Hall was required somewhere to work an extra train whether it be a seasonal freight (e.g. sugar beet) or extra passenger service in connection with a sports event or something similar ?

 

Yes , no doubt it could,except it would have to be in Bristol at the closest and there would have been any amount of suitable engines closer you'd think.

 

I always thought that the GWR's rule was that the pilot loco was put 'inside' the train engine if it only had a leading pony truck or no leading truck i.e. if the train engine was a 4-6-0 it would be put in front of a 2-6-0 or 0-6-0 'pilot'. With two 4-6-0's I would have expected the Hall, if it was to be a pilot or simply 'working back', to be in front of the King. Happy to be corrected though. Cheers, Ray.

 

That'll be it; a Brocolli special! (See BTF 'Train Time' )