As to be expected, World War I soon impacted on the Stafford Road sheds and works. Britain's railways immediately came under Government control by way of The Railway Executive Committee (REC), and by October 1914 the locomotive crews were already having to undertake extra work in order to cover additional troop, goods and passenger trains. However, at the same time Wolverhampton's railway employees generally were starting to leave their employment to heed the call to join the 'Colours'. As a result, by November a letter of release had to be obtained to produce to the local recruitment officers, giving permission for enlistment. Despite this worsening situation, the Stafford Road footplate crews were soon having to contend with the introduction of the new 1915 GWR summer timetable, which boasted no less than 13 Wolverhampton (Low Level) to London (Paddington)-only expresses.

Following compulsory recruitment being introduced in 1916, it became necessary for the GWR to take on women workers at Stafford Road works and shed, in order for them to assist in locomotive cleaning, stores, and other general work for the duration of the war. Those railwaymen in essential posts, such as footplate staff, signalmen and shunters, were of course exempt from enlistment in any event.

Although they would have presented a prize target, the locomotive sheds and works at Stafford Road and Oxley all remained intact on the night of Monday, 31 January 1916 when a Zeppelin bombing raid took place across the Midlands by German airships L19 and L21. Fortunately, as a result of prior warning, blackout restrictions were in place, and although Wolverhampton was on airship L19's route, it completely missed the town, but sadly caused extensive damage and civilian fatalities at other locations in the Black Country. The GWR Roll of Honour for 1914-18 shows that by the time of the armistice 51 railway workers from Wolverhampton had given up their lives, mainly on the battlefields of Flanders and northern France.

As previously mentioned, prior to World War I eleven 'Saint' class 4-6-0s had been sent to Stafford Road shed, replacing the 'City' and 'Flower' class 4-4-0s on the London trains. The original Great Western locomotive registers kept in the Public Record Office at Kew for 1 January 1921 record that (inclusive of the works crane locomotive) there were 208 locomotives then allocated to Wolverhampton. This list is a combination of both Stafford Road and Oxley sheds, but it does provide a snapshot and confirms that Wolverhampton was at one time the largest running centre on the GWR. At the time of the locomotive Grouping, on 1 January 1923, the two-cylinder

'Saints' had themselves been superseded by the four-cylinder 'Star' class 4-6-0s. By now the number of 'Saints' allocated to Wolverhampton had dropped to three, with no less than eleven 'Stars' as stable mates. The 'Star' class 4-6-0s were regulars at Stafford Road shed right up until 1954.

The Grouping had little obvious impact at Stafford Road shed, which already had a history of playing occasional host to locomotives originating with the various subsidiary Welsh and Shropshire lines, things carrying on much as before. The opening of the new GWR goods locomotive shed at Oxley had freed up some extra locomotive capacity at Stafford Road shed and, as a result, one of the running sheds was allowed to fall into disuse by 1923. From the late 1920s onwards almost every type of modern GWR steam locomotive (with the exception of The Great Bear) must have either been allocated to, or visited, Stafford Road shed at sometime. An effect of the major reorganisation and expansion at the works during the course of 1932 was that the 1850s former broad gauge shed in the lower yard was brought back into use as a locomotive shed, with the Road Motor Department taking over shed No 3, while shed No 2 continued in use into the 1940s.

'No less than eight 'Kings' were allocated to Stafford Road shed by 1932, and the footplate crews often received praise for their spirited performances on the two-hour expresses to Paddington'

Despite the spectre of mass unemployment, which blighted the nation in the years following World War I (peaking in the 1920s and 1930s), the number of people making train journeys did not significantly decrease. During 1927/28 the GWR was confident enough to invest in the construction of its famous 'King' class 4-6-0 locomotives at Swindon Works. A substantial amount of work performed by the 'Kings' was between London (Paddington), Birmingham (Snow Hill) and Wolverhampton (Low Level). No 6000 King George V soon appeared at Wolverhampton in the summer of 1928, with the local Express & Star newspaper carrying a photograph of the locomotive, the accompanying caption reading 'Daily Visits of a Giant'.

No less than eight 'Kings' were allocated to Stafford Road shed by 1932, and the footplate crews often received praise for their spirited performances on the two-hour expresses to Paddington - to some extent this period represented a high watermark of express passenger locomotive working from Wolverhampton. The number of 'Kings' allocated to Stafford Road shed remained fairly constant over the years at between four and seven. An allocation list for 31 December 1947 recorded Nos 6005, 6006, 6008 and 6011 - Nos 6005 and 6006 were Stafford Road engines for most of their lives.

The presence of the 'Kings' and also the 'Castle' class 4-6-0s (mainly from the 1930s onwards), together with a host of other classic GWR locomotives, reflects that the inter-war years of the 1920s and into the late 1930s were indeed the so-called 'golden age' of steam railways in Great Britain. The allocation of 'Kings' and 'Castles' to Stafford Road shed remained as a permanent fixture right up until closure. True to form, however, Wolverhampton also continued to maintain its usual eclectic Northern Division collection of newer mixed-traffic 4-6-0s, old outside-framed tender engines and various types of tank engine. Additionally, due to its close proximity to the works, newly out-shopped locomotives were often seen in the shed yard or over at the coaling bay, being prepared to be put back into service.

One of the less-popular classes allocated to Stafford Road shed in the late 1920s was the '3800' or 'County Tank' 4-4- 2T of 1904-12, four of which were used on fast trains to Chester. Nicknamed 'Airships' as a result of their unusual footplate height above rail level, they were prone to spilling water out of the side tank vents when being driven along the heavily-canted curves at Stafford Road. This unwelcome situation sometimes resulted in locomotive crews having to make unscheduled stops for water further along the line. Most of the 'County' tanks were withdrawn by 1931, although 'County' class 4-4-0 No 3834 County of Somerset survived in use at Wolverhampton until November 1933, by which time it was the last member of its class in service.

Despite the difficult economic background, railways in the 1930s were now subject to a period of expansion and innovation, in direct competition with the ever-increasing threat from road transport. Historically, timings regularly achieved by Stafford Road footplate crews on some main line workings from Wolverhampton during the mid-1930s were never bettered until after the demise of steam some 30 years later. The locomotive crews at Stafford Road also had their own local opposition to spur them on, provided by their London, Midland & Scottish Railway (ex-L&NWR) counterparts over at Bushbury locomotive shed, a short distance away across town. By 1937 an employee booking on for duty at Stafford Road shed could now be more optimistic as to the future. However, everything changed again in September 1939 with the outbreak of World War II.

Similar circumstances to those applied during World War I soon arose. This time around most railway employees were deemed to be in reserved occupations, so as to prevent indiscriminate recruiting, but those that could be spared were soon released for call-up, and many of the staff from the sheds and Works also joined the local Air Raid Precautions or Home Guard units. Women employees were also taken on again by the GWR at Stafford Road, in order to carry out locomotive painting and cleaning, and a multitude of other tasks, but, as was the case during World War I, at lower comparative wages than their male counterparts would have received.

Drivers and firemen also had to acclimatise themselves with some of the War Department 'Austerity' and United States Army Transportation Corps 2-8-0s, which had been put into service with the Great Western Railway, together with the occasional Stanier '8F' class 2-8-0 loaned by the LMS, so as to help relieve the acute locomotive shortage during the war years. After some early initial use and running-in, the United States Army Transportation Corps locomotives were then shipped abroad.

Unlike the itinerant Zeppelin raid back in 1916, there was now a very real danger that Wolverhampton would soon be targeted by the Luftwaffe bombing raids that were being carried out across the industrial Midlands. Night-time blackout restrictions had been put into operation at the shed right from the very start, often creating dangerous working conditions in the minimum lighting allowed. Employees at Stafford Road Works were also soon hard at work fitting canvas sheeting and steel anti-glare plates, enclosing locomotive cabs so as to restrict the glow from the firebox. Unfortunately this gave rise to sweltering conditions on the footplate, especially in the summertime. Incredibly, in the event no bomb damage was ever sustained, either at Stafford Road or over at Oxley.

For the duration of the war, substantial levels of increased work had to be undertaken to provide motive power to deal with troop trains, constant freight movements, including munitions, and a host of other defence-related and sometimes risky train diagrams, often in blackout conditions, towards maintaining the national war effort. On a lighter note, at one time a contingent of Italian prisoners of war were sent to Wolverhampton to do manual work at both the GWR and LMS sheds. Those who knew them remember their singing abilities, which is not surprising as some had previously been members of the Milan Opera Company before the war. These POWs were carefully watched over, either by regular soldiers or sometimes the local Home Guard, both at the sheds and when out working along the line.

Following the end of the war in 1945, employees at Stafford Road shed might have been tempted to believe the popular wartime saying that 'the good times were just around the corner', even though the immediate post-war austerity years were, of necessity, a period of re-adjustment and rehabilitation.