4965 Rood Ashton Hall is the regular engine used on the popular Shakesepare Express summer steam trains service running between Birmingham & Statford-upon-Avon. It is now completed no less than 117 outings with this train. This page gives a short history of the locomotive. More photographs of it in service with Vintage Trains can be seen on:
Shakespeare Express>> On Vintage Train Excursions>>

4965 Rood Ashton 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.  4965 itself was first allocated to Oxley shed in Wolverhampton and by 1948 was allocated to Bristol St.Phillips Marsh moving to Penzance and several other sheds before being withdrawn from Didcot in 1963.

In 1962, she underwent a change of identity during overhaul where we believe Swindon Works made one good engine out of two, and she emerged bearing the name and number 4983 Albert Hall. Consequently, she may carry this name some times!

She was purchased from Barry Scrapyard in 1971 for the Tyseley Collection and put back into main line service following a test run from Tyseley to Worcester and back in 1998. The overhaul was carried out by Tyseley Locomotive Works, the engineering subsidiary of the Birmingham Railway Museum Trust with the able assistance of an award winning team of young people who were learning the skills of the steam age.

Today she carries authentic GWR 1926 fully lined livery and is a regular main line performer being the engine used regularly on the Shakespeare Express. Her return to the main line was marked by a re-enactment of the former 'SLS Special' trains with a run from Birmingham Snow Hill to Didcot on Sunday 18th April 1999.

Since then 4965 has been the mainstay engine used on the 'Shakespeare Express', the Sundays-only Steam Train service, which runs during the summer months (and occasionally at other times of the year) between Birmingham Snow Hill and Stratford-upon-Avon.  The engine has also been used on many 'one-off' excursions including deputising for a mighty King locomotive on a trip from Snow Hill to Paddington, which is something that Halls used to do in the days of regular steam hauled trains. She has also hauled several trains double-headed with Tyseley sister engine 4936 Kinlet 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 Rood Ashton Hall hauled the first of two 'Lickey Banker' runs up the legendary Lickey Bank ably assisted by stable mate GWR Pannier 0-6-0 Number 7760 as banking engine.

Rood Ashton Hall completed its 117th duty heading the 'Shakespeare Express' on Sunday 26th August 2007. Although it should have been withdrawn for overhaul in March 2008, an extension of 6 months has been granted due to recent boiler work.

The engine has visited a great many places with tours, many of which had not previously been visited by a Hall class locomotive. Destinations include Paddington, Blackpool, Bristol, Carlisle, Chester, Coalville, Didcot, Holyhead, Kettering, Kidderminster, Lincoln, Marylebone, Melton Mowbray, Newport, Oakham, Ruddington, Worcester, York.

Read the fascinating story of 4965's change of identity reproduced from the Winter 1998 edition of 'Steam in Trust' (the journal of the Vintage Trains Society). For identity swap story>>