LMS Route: Trent Valley Line
LMS Route: Nuneaton to Leamington
Nuneaton Station: lnwrns1694a
Close up of image 'lnwrns1694' showing the layout of the
original Nuneaton station with the Ashby bay located to the right of
Nuneation's main station building. The Ashby bay can be seen to the right of
the main station building and slightly above the Ashby bay is a short spur used
to land road vehicles. At right angles to the platform is a siding leading to
the goods shed and another at a slight angle that leads to a siding running
behind the goods shed and parallel to the Rugby Stafford line.
The three solid circles are wagon turntables and the two
either side of the Rugby to Stafford line are located on parallel sidings, the
third being behind the goods shed. Access to the parallel sidings is via
pointwork, sometimes described as crossovers, designed so that the train has to
reverse to cross from one line to another rather than just carrying on in the
direction travel. This configuration is described as trailing points whilst
pointwork where the train moves from one track to another whilst still moving
forward is called a facing point.
Trailing points were much safer than facing points because
the standard of engineering and materials was much more primitive than today.
With facing points there was a danger that because of wear and fatigue the
wheels of the train's vehicles would force apart the main rail and the switch
rail thereby derailing the passing train. With trailing points the two rails
are forced together as the train passes through the points. Reversing the train
through trailing points is done at low speed both reducing the possibility of
derailment if the track is fatigued and minimising the impact.
Wagon turntables were used as an alternative to pointwork as
they allowed sudden changes of direction in a very limited space. In the
instances above the wagon could be moved to a line at ninety degrees within a
space of less than twenty feet. However the drawbacks were soon evident when
the volume of traffic rose as this configuration only allowed for one wagon at
a time. The use of steam haulage was also limited once on the siding although
the use of chains, ropes and fixed capstans allowed the wagon to be turned by
locomotive power. Horse power was the prime mover of wagons and most railways
employed shunting horses in large numbers up to the 1930s although some
survived until after the Second World War.
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