LMS Route: Trent Valley Line

LMS Route: Nuneaton to Leamington

Nuneaton Shed: lnwrns3847

LNWR engine 2-4-2T 4 foot 6 inch No 781 poses for the camera in Nuneaton yard between trips in the 1920s. The locomotive was one of a class of two hundred and twenty passenger such locomotives built by Crewe works between 1879 and 1898 which had been designed for working local passenger trains. The reference to '4 foot 6 inch' in their description title referred to the diameter of its driving wheels. From 1909 many locomotives of the class were fitted for Push-pull working, giving them nickname of 'Motor Tanks'. Withdrawals started in 1905 with one hundred and eighteen being scrapped in the years up to the 1923 grouping, leaving ninety to be passed on to the LMS. In LMS service they were allocated the power classification '1P' and assigned the numbers 6515–6600 and 6758–6761 although only thirty-seven survived long enough to receive them. Under the LMS, withdrawals restarted in 1924 the last being withdrawn in June 1936 which resulted in the class becoming extinct. To the untrained eye they might be confused with the LNWR's 5 foot 6 inch 2-4-2 Tank locomotive first built in 1890. An easy method of ascertaining which was which is to look at the springs mounted above the footplate adjacent to the smoke box. On the 4 foot 6 inch locomotive its 'hard' against the side tank whereas on the 5 foot 6 inch locomotive their is a large gap between the springs and the side tank.

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