LMS Route: Nuneaton to Leamington

Old Milverton Lineside Views: lnwr_oldmil1465a

Close up of image 'lnwr_oldmil1465' showing ex-LNWR 7F 0-8-0 'G2' No 9415 in a very grimy and dirty condition with two types of coal in the wagons behind the tender. It wasn't just in British Railways days that locomotives, particularly goods engines, were not cleaned on a regular basis. Whilst never cleaned as thoroughly as passenger locomotives goods engine were prior to the First World War were kept in a much better condition than afterwards. The railways were labour intensive in practically every area of operational life and when labour was cheap, high standards of cleanliness could be achieved without impacting on the profitability of the railway. When labour became a scarce resource during the Second World War the emphasis changed from preventative maintenance to only repairing parts when they broke. The cleaning of locomotives fell very much in to this latter category. After the Second World War the shortage of labour was due to the better pay and working conditions found in the factories and this too led to the selective cleaning of locomotives with passenger locomotives being prioritised. When it was announced that steam was to be withdrawn from a given area, few locomotives from the affected sheds were cleaned except by a few enthusiasts who cleaned locomotives on the steam specials commissioned as a Farewell to Steam. Whilst the date on the photograph states late 1930s, in my opinion the photograph was taken circa 1947-8.

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