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London North Western
Railway:
Midland
Railway:
Stratford
Midland Junction Railway
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LMS Route: Nuneaton to Coventry
Foleshill Station: lnwrf137
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Looking towards Nuneaton as English Electric Type 4 No D339
passes the former site of Foleshill goods yard which has now been fenced off
from the railway on 2nd September 1967. British Railways originally ordered ten
English Electric Type 4 for evaluation purposes which used the bogie design and
power train of the Southern Region locomotive No 10203 almost unchanged on the
first ten production Class 40. Sir Brian Robertson, Chairman of the British
Transport Commission, was less than impressed, believing that the locomotives
lacked the power to maintain heavy trains at high speed and were too expensive
to run in multiple units an opinion that was later proved to be correct. Airing
his views at the regional boards prompted others to break cover and it was
agreed that later orders would be up-rated to 2500 hp although this change was
never applied. Direct comparisons on the Great Eastern mainline showed they
offered little advantage over the 'Britannia' 4-6-0 class of steam locomotive,
and therefore the Eastern Region declined to accept further locomotives as they
deemed them unsuitable to replace the Standard Class 5 steam locomotives on the
East Coast Main Line preferring to hold on until the 'Deltic' Class 55 diesels
were delivered. However the Eastern Region's decision pleased the London
Midland Region as it released additional locomotives to replace their ageing
steam fleet, The Type 4 locomotives, or Class 40 as they were late denoted,
managed Camden bank just north of Euston station with apparent ease. The West
Coast Main Line had been starved of investment for many years and the poor
track and general lower speeds, when compared to the East Coast route, suited
this locomotive as the need to hold trains at speed for long periods simply did
not exist and it better exploited their fairly rapid acceleration.
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