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London North Western
Railway:
Midland
Railway:
Stratford
Midland Junction Railway
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LMS Route: Rugby to Wolverhampton LMS Route: Nuneaton to
Leamington
Coventry Station: lnwr620b
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This close up of image 'lnwr620' showing the down platform,
train shed and passenger footbridge whilst a locomotive is seen underneath
taking on water. Unfortunately its not possible to determine whether or not the
train standing on the down through road is without a locomotive providing
speculation that the locomotive by the water column is the train's locomotive
having reversed into the down platform take on water. Such an occurrence would
not necessarily have been unusual because at the time of the photograph railway
policemen, or "bobbies" - as they are still known as today, were still
controlling train journeys by the time interval system. Before signal boxes and
and the division of the route in to 'blocks' the setting of points and signals
was still operated by hand. In all probability this train was not scheduled to
stop at Coventry and the points and signals would have been set by the bobby to
allow the train to pass through on the fast down line. In which case the driver
would have brought his engine to a standstill opposite the water column and
explained the need to take on water. In this case with the train standing on
the down through line, the locomotive would have to be drawn forward clear of
the points and then reversed back in to the down platform to access the water
column.
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