|
London North Western
Railway:
Midland
Railway:
Stratford
Midland Junction Railway
|
|
LMS Route: Rugby to Tamworth
Tamworth Station: lnwr_tam3139
|
An unidentified LNWR 2-4-0 'Improved Precedent' class
locomotive on an ordinary passenger service near Tamworth. The class was
designed by FW Webb with 158 being built in batches by Crewe works between 1887
to 1897 with two further locomotives being built in 1898 and 1901 respectively.
They were officially classed by the LNWR as 'renewals' (i.e. replacements) of
96 Newton class and 62 Precedent class locomotives. This was an accountancy tax
avoiding technique, being charged against the company's revenue account rather
than the company's capital account, which would have been the case if they had
correctly been classified as 'new' locomotives. Essentially this meant the cost
of building the locomotive could be recovered in one year rather than over many
years. On renewal, they kept the numbers and names of their predecessors, and
as a result the numbering system continued to be completely haphazard. In
addition to the 158 locomotives, eight Precedent class locomotives that were
not renewed, were rebuilt to the Improved specification, but retaining their
original 7/8 inch thick frames, whereas the renewed locomotives had 1 inch
frames.
back
|