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London North Western
Railway:
Midland
Railway:
Stratford
Midland Junction Railway
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LMS Route: Nuneaton to Leamington
Old Milverton Lineside Views: lnwr_oldmil1446a
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Close up of image 'lnwr_oldmil1446' showing the locomotive's
tender fitted with axle springs placed beneath the tender running plate. Harry
Jack in his RCTS book 'Locomotives of the LNWR Southern Division' states that
the short lengths of rail, initially 15' then 21' long, had a devastating
effect on the iron springs of the rolling stock of the day. An early experiment
fitting rubber springs, a hollow cylinder of thick rubber contained within a
brass casing or iron rings located either above or below the axlebox, had
proved a success and these had been progressively fitted to Southern Division
locomotives. Harry Jack also notes that McConnell reported in November 1853
there were 147 instances of steel spring failure per MONTH whilst there had
been no failures at all with stock fitted with the new method of using rubber
springs. The introduction of fishplates tying the rails together between chairs
provided a better ride than the original method of joining rails by butting
them together on a single cast iron chair.
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