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LMS Route: Birmingham New Street to Nuneaton

Nuneaton Abbey Street Station: mrna1099

View of ex-LMS 4F 0-6-0 No 43953 arriving at Abbey Street station with an RCTS special on 16th October 1965

View of ex-LMS 4F 0-6-0 No 43953 arriving at Abbey Street station with an RCTS special on 16th October 1965. Its recorded in Chris Banks' book The Birmingham to Leicester Line that the locomotive departed four minutes late at 10:49am. The route for the six-coach special was Burton via the Ashby line, followed by a tour of various lines in Nottingham and Derbyshire prior to arriving at London Road station in Leicester. During the latter stages of the tour the locomotive started to lose steam and was unable to keep to time with speeds often not reaching 30mph. Apparently this was due to the locomotive being in continuous use for 12 hours without the firebox being cleaned. This resulted in clinker building up which limited its steam raising ability. However despite this, Chris records that the locomotive was only half an hour late in completing the 175 mile trip. One other reason for the problem might well have been the lack of practice of firing this type of locomotive by the fireman.

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