LMS Route: Rugby to Tamworth

Tamworth Station: lnwr_tam1262

LNWR 4-6-0 Compound No 170, a member of the 1400 class nicknamed Bill Baileys, is seen standing along side Tamworth's Pump House. The LNWR's web sites states, "The 'Bill Bailey's were Webb’s last design and was a four-cylinder compound 4-6-0, intended as a powerful engine for both goods and passenger traffic. The two 15 inch diameter outside high-pressure cylinders exhausted into the two 20½ inch diameter low-pressure cylinders". It was intended as a more powerful replacement for the 'Cauliflowers' on mixed-traffic duties and particularly for fast goods work. An unusual feature for Crewe is the long continuous splasher with a sandbox on the front of the splasher. With another on the tender it was well equipped to help in braking heavy trains.

The LNWR website comments on the design thus, "Their story shows how easily a design could be misunderstood: At the time they were starkly pilloried as Mr. Webb’s greatest failure, and long known as ‘Bill Baileys’ from the song “Why won't you come home Bill Bailey?” But were they so bad? In fact, recently discovered drivers experiences have reported they were sure-footed engines that could ‘plug away’ at a load, preferred to much later LMS Stanier ‘Black 5’ and ‘8F’ 2-8-0’s. Because they did their job well but unexceptionally they were never exciting and so were too easily dismissed as failures — which was not in fact the case. In support of this, only two had been built before Webb retired. The total of thirty finally built could not have been completed if they were such failures. Further, even the malicious name may not be true: Rodney Weaver has suggested the name may have come from prestige haulage of the ‘Barnum & Bailey’ circus trains, touring the country at the time. Maybe we shall never now know the true origins. Did they really deserve to be so maligned?"

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