LMS Route: Rugby to Wolverhampton
LMS Route: Nuneaton to Leamington

Coventry Station: broom2

Painting showing Coventry Station looking towards Birmingham with the 1838 engine shed on the left and the original station on the right. The locomotive is L&B Bury 2-2-0 No 10 waiting for the arrival of the late running afternoon first-class train. The turntable in front of the engine shed is not evident from early photographs. The approach of the line to the engine shed was later occupied by the down platform as is evidenced by the water column which remained in place until the station was rebuilt in 1959. On the right can be seen a railway policeman and his trackside shelter. Early railways were worked on the the time interval basis in the absence of signals and the block system which only allowed one engine to enter at a time. The time interval system meant that trains were allowed to depart after a given time and assumed that the preceding train would arrive at its destination without breaking down or being delayed. The system was fraught with dangers particularly at night or bad weather and accidents were common. The painting is by Gerald Broom.

The above is a scan from an old paper cutting taken from one of Reg Kimber's many files collected over 50 years, hence the poor colour. The caption to the print, thought to have been produced by the Coventry Evening Telegraph, was 'Coventry Station in late 1839, when the afternoon first-class train from Birmingham is expected. Passengers have been allowed down from the terraced circulating area, but the fiction suggests a late running, and the Bury 2-2-0 locomotive No 10 is being prepared to assist the arrival on to Rugby' Having never had the privilege of seeing the original its not known which of the two images captures the best colour of the painting.

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