LMS Route: Nuneaton to Leamington

Old Milverton Lineside Views: lnwr_oldmil1454a

Close up of image 'lnwr_oldmil1454' showing ex-LNWR 7F 0-8-0 'G2A' No 8921 is still carrying its original round top firebox whilst the tender is loaded to the gunnels with coal. Later version of the locomotive carried a Belpaire firebox which visually looked square. Whilst the LNER, under Gresley and Thomson continued to use the round top firebox, most other railway companies had accepted the Belpaire firebox offered significant advantages despite the initial extra building cost. On the LNWR pre-grouping locomotives that had originally been built with round top fireboxes were, over time, to receive Belpaire firebox equipped boilers as they went into the workshops. However, as the LNWR operated a 'waste not' philosophy and boilers were only scrapped after they were life expired, locomotives could, over the course of their operational lives, be seen with several changes of boilers of both types. Built as LNWR No 2567 at Crewe in May 1902, No 8921 was initially rebuilt as a 'G1' in May 1924, renumbered by the LMS in November 1926, then rebuilt as a 'G2A' in March 1940 in which form it remained in service until April 1958 when it was withdrawn from Shrewsbury shed to be scrapped by Crew works in the same month.

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