LMS Route: Rugby to Wolverhampton

LMS Route: Birmingham New Street to Lichfield

LMS Route: Birmingham New Street to Soho and Perry Barr

Curzon Street Good Station: lnwrcs1498

View of a wagon being shunted by capstan power on one of Curzon Street's cross lines and turntables. The problem of accessing a wagon from the middle of a long line of wagons was in part solved by the use of wagon turntables located at several points along the sidings. These made it possible to move wagons from a mid-point within a row of wagons to a nearby line kept clear for the purpose of moving traffic in and out of the yard. The movement of the wagons were powered either by horse or frequently, as seen in the posed photograph above, by using capstans. In some instances, dumb (non-powered) capstans could also be employed in combination with powered capstans. These allowed one capstan to operate several maneuvers on adjacent lines by using long rope looped around one or more dumb capstans placed alongside such lines.

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