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LMS Route: Rugby to Wolverhampton
LMS Route: Birmingham - Soho - Perry Barr - Birmingham
LMS Route: Birmingham New Street to Harborne

Monument Lane Station: lnwrml2228

Ex-LMS 3P 2-6-2T No M49 is seen leaving Monument Lane station with a Wolverhampton to New Street local passenger service on 21st May 1948

Ex-LMS 3P 2-6-2T No M49 is seen leaving Monument Lane station with a Wolverhampton to New Street local passenger service on 21st May 1948. Following nationalisation of the big four railways - the GWR, LMS, LNER and Southern railways - there was an obvious duplication of numbers between the four companies. The initial solution was to prefix the number with a letter and in the case of the LMS this was the letter 'M' to indicate that the locomotive was a locomotive of the London Midland Region of British Railways. The final solution adopted was for the GWR to retain its series of numbers whilst the LMS, the LNER and Southern railway locomotives had their numbers increased by: LMS - 40,000, LNER - 60,000 and Southern - 30,000 which allowed British Railways to use numbers commencing at 70,000. This provided a simple method to differentiate between locomotives of each company. In the instance seen above, LMS No 49 became British Railways No 40049.

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