Birmingham New Street Station

LNWR Locomotives: lnwrbns_pg1932

View of New Street station's West end pilot locomotive, LNWR '5ft 6in' 2-4-2T No 1389, standing in the vicinity of No 5 Signal Cabin. The LNWR made reference to '5ft 6in' in its official description of this class of locomotive (referring to the diameter of the driving wheels) to differentiate this class from the earlier 2-4-2T design which employed '4ft 6in' diameter driving wheels. The size of the station coupled with the number of workings starting and terminating at New Street meant that two pilots, one for each end of the station needed to be employed. Typically these locomotives were supplied by the former LNWR Monument Lane shed. The circular piston-valve covers and cylinder covers evident below the smokebox in other photographs have by 1920 been blanked off and replaced with a single cover respectively.

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