LMS Route: Nuneaton to Leamington

Kenilworth Junction: lnwrkj174a

Close up of image 'lnwrkj174' showing ex-LNWR 3P 4-4-0 'Precursor class' No 25306 'Lang Meg' with the signalman standing by the track ready to hand over the train staff. Introduced by George Whale in 1904 some 130 examples were built by Crewe works up to 1907, their introduction allowed Whale to phase out his predecessor Francis Webb's unreliable compound locomotives. When first built they were fitted with saturated boilers though some were later fitted with superheated boilers which were much more efficient and became the default boiler configuration. In essence they were a larger version of Webb's 2-4-0 'Improved' Precedent class known to railwaymen as 'Jumbos' the last of which were built in 1901.

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