4936 Kinlet Hall is one of the versatile GWR Hall class locomotives, which is a guest at Tyseley. This page gives a short history of the locomotive.

4936 Kinlet Hall was built for the Great Western Railway in 1929 at Swindon Works.  She is one of the mixed traffic Hall class engines which did sterling work for the GWR and BR on all sorts of trains.  Several of the type were allocated to Tyseley shed for semi-fast, parcels and holiday excursions and they also worked the fruit trains to Moor Street goods depot including the famous broccoli trains from Cornwall.  

When new, 4936 was paired with a 3500 gallon tender, but exchanged it for a 4000 gallon tender in 1938.  She was first allocated to Chester, them moved frequently to such places as Swindon, Stafford Road, Shrewsbury, Oswestry, Oxley, Oxford, Old Oak Common  before spending her later years at Truro and Laira and ending her BR days at Cardiff Canton and East Dock. 

Kinlet was withdrawn from service on 15th January 1964 and sold as scrap to Woodham Bros of Barry.  The 'Kinlet Hall Locomotive Co Ltd' was formed in 1980 to purchase and restore 4936 to working order.  She was purchased and transferred to Peak Rail, Matlock in May 1981, but moved to the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway, Toddington in March 1985, then Llangollen in October 1992.  The next move, to Tyseley her present home, occurred in December 1996.  The first successful steaming for 36 years took place at Tyseley Locomotive Works on 16th February 2000.  Following a light trial run from Tyseley to Stratford and then an evening loaded test run from Birmingham Snow Hill to Worcester Shrub Hill, including a climb up the gruelling Old Hill Bank on 8th June 2000, Kinlet achieved National Rail mainline certification.

Since returning to the mainline, Kinlet Hall has travelled widely on excursions, several double-headed with Tyseley sister engine 4965 Rood Ashton Hall.  The "dynamic duo" have exhibited great haulage capabilities over the notorious South Devon banks and then on LMS metals with a spectacular run from Crewe to Carlisle & back over Shap carrying a Western Region style headboard entitled "The Caledonian".  In October 2001 Kinlet Hall hauled the second of two "Lickey Banker" runs up the legendary Lickey Bank ably assisted by Tyseley stable mate GWR Pannier 0-6-0 Number 7760 as banking engine.  More recently Kinlet Hall has run popular excursions to Chester for the races and appeared at the Crewe Works 2003 Open Weekend.  Kinlet Hall spent the 2003 summer away from Tyseley, but on her return has been used on one of Vintage Trains' two Christmas Lunch Steam Specials.

Of the restoration costs approximately one third was provided by the Heritage Lottery Fund.  This grant enabled re-tyring of all locomotive wheelsets - the first 'Hall' to receive this in preservation.  A unique feature of 4936 is that it was, and is, the only GWR engine to have manganese liners fitted to the main axle boxes.

The owning company would welcome information about the locomotive particularly war time damage sustained during an air raid on Plymouth harbour in 1941.  The company would also like to know the reason for, and details of, a plaque that was carried on the rear left side step sideframe - maybe something to do with the manganese liners.

Kinlet Hall undertakes mainline duties and preserved railway duties. It may be stabled at other locations depending upon its current work commitments. For more details of its activities, please see Kinlet Hall Locomotive Ltd website.