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LMS Route: Nuneaton to Leamington

Kenilworth Station: lnwrk150

An unidentified LNWR 2-4-0 Improved Precedent class locomotive is seen entering Kenilworth station at the head of an up mixed stock express service

An unidentified LNWR 2-4-0 Improved Precedent class locomotive is seen entering Kenilworth station at the head of an express service circa 1908-10. There has been some debate about the date of this photograph but colleagues from the LNWR Society were able to date the photograph from the following information. Ted Talbot writes 'The date has got to be after May 1895, because that is the date when the LNWR first began to put coal rails on tenders. Passenger engines got them very soon, goods engines more slowly, some not even by 1900. Another good dating feature is the centre lamp socket on the bufferbeam, which first came into use when the LNWR, along with many other companies, adopted the RCH headlamp code, from 1st February 1903.

The engine is not of course a Newton (as originally described). The Newtons were introduced by Ramsbottom in the 1860s. Webb built a few more when he took over and then introduced the Precedents. From 1887 he replaced first the Newtons and then the Precedents with the Improved Precedents. It has to be one of the latter in this picture - because only they had the circular smokebox door and tender coal rails seen here. For fuller details see Chapter Six of my book An Illustrated History of LNWR Engines. Mike Williams adds 'I note you refer to "goods wagons" (as the first five vehicles were originally described) being banned from passenger trains, but unlike on some railways, all of these were classified as passenger vehicles by the LNWR'.

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