LMS Route: Rugby to Wolverhampton
LMS Route: Rugby to Leamington
LMS Route: Rugby to Tamworth
LMS Route: Rugby to Leicester
LMS Route: Rugby to Market Harborough

Rugby Shed: lnwrrm3988

Ex-LMS 2-8-0 8F No 48173 is seen standing alongside Rugby shed's ash plant on 19th July 1964. In response to the economic slump in the late 1920s and early 1930s the LMS sought to reduce costs in a number of operational areas, the preparation and disposal of locomotives being one. In order to reduce both the time and manpower needed to dispose locomotives the LMS undertook, between 1938 and 1944, a modernisation programme for handling ash produced by steam locomotives. This allowed the ash from the smokebox and firebox to be thrown downwards into a hopper which when full would be hoisted up and over a wagon to be then emptied into it. This replaced the labour intensive operation when workmen were required to shovel the ash lying on the ground directly into the wagon.

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