LMS Route: Nuneaton to Leamington

Kenilworth Junction: lnwrkj183

Ex-LNWR 7F 'G2 Class' 0-8-0 No 49441 hauls a Class J mineral train towards Leamington Avenue in the late 1950s. The G2 class was built by HPM Beames under his very brief stewardship as LNWR CME (from 1920 until 1922 when the LNWR merged with the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) and the latter's CME, George Hughes, was made CME of the now expanded LNWR. Beames was given the title 'Divisional Mechanical Engineer, Western Division'. The expanded LNWR was then grouped in 1923 into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) and Beames became 'Mechanical Engineer, Crewe'. Beames was again overlooked in favour of the elderly Hughes for the top position of CME). Built by Crewe as LNWR No 2381, the locomotive was renumbered by the LMS as No 9441 in October 1927 and again by British Railways as No 49441 in December 1951 which it carried until October 1961 when the locomotive was withdrawn from 2B Nuneaton shed to be scrapped.

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