Modified Hall - Wightwick Hall 6989

[Rob Coote]

Hi All

I hope that everyone is well and enjoying the weekend.

I hope that I have posted this in the right section, but I am looking for assistance in regards to obtaining a framed picture of the above steam loco.

The reason for this is that my son attends a school in Wolverhampton called Wightwick Hall School. Following a meeting at the school I discovered that they have a number plate from the above loco and I suggested that it would be ideal to have a nice picture of said loco hanging above the number plate. A number of the staff weren't aware what the plate was from, let alone from a steam loco with the same name.

Ironically the school seems to have a connection to railways as they have the original station clock from Snow Hill for which takes pride of place above the main entrance.

I apologise for the length of message but after weeks of trying make contact along with similar messages to the the societies and railways connected to the loco with no returned communication, I am now turning to the RailUK forum for your help.

Any assistance in obtaining a picture / photo of the above would be gratefully appreciated.

I look forward to hearing back from anyone who can help.

Kind Regards

Rob Coote

 

[8A Rail]

Go on to the Flickr site - see: https://www.flickr.com and enter '6989' or especially 'Wightwick Hall' into the search engie and it comes up with various images. Have a look, when one 'seems' to be suitable attempt to contact the photographer for a copy of the image.

 

[Rob Coote]

Go on to the Flickr site - see: https://www.flickr.com and enter '6989' or especially 'Wightwick Hall' into the search engie and it comes up with various images. Have a look, when one 'seems' to be suitable attempt to contact the photographer for a copy of the image.

Hi, thanks for the help and I shall have go that way. Have a good evening .

 

[30907]

I must say it is disappointing that the owners of 6989 (given that it still exists, which I hadn't realised) haven't responded - I would have thought that a connection with a school, especially a specialist one, might tick several boxes on a grant application form. But they may well be a small and struggling outfit whose energy goes into restoring the loco.

 

[Rescars]

As a bit of an aside, when the Southern Railway named their "V" class after public schools, they presented the schools in question with a rather fine framed photo of "their" locomotive to commemorate the event. However, these weren't quite what they purported to be, as the photos were all the same - a photograph of 911 "Dover" with its name and number masked. The appropriate name and number were then painted on to each nameplate and tender.

If you were to follow this tradition, then a photo of any Modified Hall loco would do!

 

[Taunton]

Not every relationship worked well - Schools Class "Uppingham" had to be removed when someone at the school later objected to it.

The old Great Western Railway named their larger locomotives after various groups of stately homes, different groupings for each type - Castles are well known, there were Granges, Halls, etc, of which the latter were by far the most numerous, and it was an increasing challenge for someone on the engineering team to seek out the various names. Halls were numbered 4900-99, then 5900-99, and then 6900-99, so yours is the 290th such name that had to be found. Incidentally, it was never a Great Western locomotive but was built in 1948 in the first year of the nationalised British Railways.

As Birmingham Snow Hill was mostly abandoned in 1967, and 6989 was withdrawn from service in 1964, my guess would be someone on the staff in the 1960s was an enthusiast. Notably both the station and the locomotive have had a remarkable renaissance in more recent times. Bear in mind such locomotive preservation efforts are always by part-time volunteers, who may only access their contact points now and then.

Lots of pictures and information about it, past and present, here :

6989 Wightwick Hall – Preserved British Steam Locomotives

 

[Rescars]

Not every relationship worked well - Schools Class "Uppingham" had to be removed when someone at the school later objected to it.

The old Great Western Railway named their larger locomotives after various groups of stately homes, different groupings for each type - Castles are well known, there were Granges, Halls, etc, of which the latter were by far the most numerous, and it was an increasing challenge for someone on the engineering team to seek out the various names. Halls were numbered 4900-99, then 5900-99, and then 6900-99, so yours is the 290th such name that had to be found. Incidentally, it was never a Great Western locomotive but was built in 1948 in the first year of the nationalised British Railways.

As Birmingham Snow Hill was mostly abandoned in 1967, and 6989 was withdrawn from service in 1964, my guess would be someone on the staff in the 1960s was an enthusiast. Notably both the station and the locomotive have had a remarkable renaissance in more recent times. Bear in mind such locomotive preservation efforts are always by part-time volunteers, who may only access their contact points now and then.

Lots of pictures and information about it, past and present, here :

6989 Wightwick Hall – Preserved British Steam Locomotives

I don't know if there was any prior consultation with the schools involved, but I believe the headmaster of Uppingham at the time was deeply offended that the name of his establishment should appear on something so commonplace as a railway locomotive. The Southern swiftly renamed 928 as "Stowe", where the powers that be presumably took a more relaxed view about brand awareness!

 

[Gloster]

I don't know if there was any prior consultation with the schools involved, but I believe the headmaster of Uppingham at the time was deeply offended that the name of his establishment should appear on something so commonplace as a railway locomotive. The Southern swiftly renamed 928 as "Stowe", where the powers that be presumably took a more relaxed view about brand awareness!

I thought it was a case of the headmaster being appalled that it looked as though the school was involved in ‘gasp’ advertising.

 

[Rescars]

I thought it was a case of the headmaster being appalled that it looked as though the school was involved in ‘gasp’ advertising.

Gloster may well be right. Either way, as far as Uppinham was concerned, this was clearly not the way to behave!

 

[Ken X]

Hi Rob,

By a strange co-incidence the present Mrs X and myself visited the Battlefield Line whilst taking a break from the Ashby Canal in July. I took a few photos of the above Steam Loco as the name caught our attention at the time. If, by any chance, one of these is of use please let me know. I am now struggling as the files appear to be too large to attach. I will peruse the forum rules and see if I can work out how to downsize my images so you can see them. Watch this space and if anyone can kindly fly me through how to attach an image I am all ears. As you can see I am new to this forum lark.

Cheers,

Ken

Hi Rob,

OK, I hope this works, apologies if it is formatted incorrectly, I have shrunk the images and they seem to have inserted. If these are of any interest let me know and I can send you the original files. Purely happy snaps but you are welcome to copies.

Cheers,

Ken

 

[SWTCommuter]

Alamy picture library has a few photos available
Wightwick Hall on Alamy

 

[30907]

Not every relationship worked well - Schools Class "Uppingham" had to be removed when someone at the school later objected to it.

Halls were numbered 4900-99, then 5900-99, and then 6900-99,

You forgot 7900-7929 .
7900 was St Peter's Hall which was a "new build" having only opened in 1929, as was 7911 Lady Margaret Hall (1879!), but that still left 28 to find.
You know the one about 7930? - to have been named "That's Hall."

 

[Gloster]

They also missed out ‘Enry Hall.

 

[Rob Coote]

Hi Rob,

By a strange co-incidence the present Mrs X and myself visited the Battlefield Line whilst taking a break from the Ashby Canal in July. I took a few photos of the above Steam Loco as the name caught our attention at the time. If, by any chance, one of these is of use please let me know. I am now struggling as the files appear to be too large to attach. I will peruse the forum rules and see if I can work out how to downsize my images so you can see them. Watch this space and if anyone can kindly fly me through how to attach an image I am all ears. As you can see I am new to this forum lark.

Cheers,

Ken

Hi Rob,

OK, I hope this works, apologies if it is formatted incorrectly, I have shrunk the images and they seem to have inserted. If these are of any interest let me know and I can send you the original files. Purely happy snaps but you are welcome to copies.

Cheers,

Ken


View attachment 106260View attachment 106261View attachment 106262

Hi Ken.
Many thanks for the reply and the photos are great! You have been a great help with offering your photos, so yes, if you wouldnt mind I could certainly use the raw images and get them blown up and framed for the school.
Best Regards
Rob Coote

Hi All.

I would like to thank you all for whom have responded to my initial request, you have all been very helpful.

Best Regards

Rob Coote

 

[Ken X]

HI Rob,

No problem, is there a way to PM another member? Once again my lack of forum knowledge is showing itself. I am wondering if there is a minumum number of posts to allow this? I shall research further.

Ken

 

[pdeaves]

They also missed out ‘Enry Hall.

and Dining Hall

 

[Peter Mugridge]

No problem, is there a way to PM another member? Once again my lack of forum knowledge is showing itself. I am wondering if there is a minumum number of posts to allow this? I shall research further.

Five posts, I believe.

 

[Ken X]

Hi Peter,

Many thanks, suspected that might be the case. I will keep posting and see how it goes. Cheers, Ken

 

[52290]

They also missed out ‘Enry Hall.

Not to mention Sod Hall.

 

[Ken X]

This should be my fourth post, one to go to be able to PM.

 

[Cowley]

This should be my fourth post, one to go to be able to PM.

You’ll have to think of something Hall related to talk about Ken.

 

[Ken X]

You are so right. Unfortunately I know slightly more about narrowboats than Hall class locomotives. We were just interested in the name when we saw it pass so did a bit of Gurgling and decided to give it the once over. We still enjoy visiting a Heritage Railway whenever we can and usually find one close to the boat reasonably regularly.

 

[randyrippley]

Dan's Hall?

 

[India Four Two]

Let's not forget the last Modified Hall - 7929 Wyke Hall, which should have been named That's All.

It may be apocryphal but I read that Paddington had a sense of humour failure when that name was suggested.

 

[30907]

Let's not forget the last Modified Hall - 7929 Wyke Hall, which should have been named That's All.

Makes better sense than my suggestion of 7930 in #12.

It may be apocryphal but I read that Paddington had a sense of humour failure when that name was suggested.