Matrix Trains LNWR Carriage Sets - LNWR ERA -

By the 1890's LNWR carriage design was lagging far behind other companies. Due to CME F.W. Webb and Carriage Superintendent R. Bore's conservative attitudes to carriage design, many of the LNWR carriages were either 6 wheel or 8 wheel radial truck stock ( where the outer two axles had sideways play to accommodate curves ) and archaic chain braking. Chain brakes required great effort to apply and took time to have an effect, due to taking up slack. Also it was limited to about 5 coaches, being too heavy with more coaches. This necessitated in multiple brake coaches on longer trains, and difficulty in coordinating brake applications.

In 1887 Bore retired and his place was taken by C.A. Park. A man in tune with modern methods. His first innovation was the replacement of chain brakes with automatic vacuum brakes. To be fair to Bore, he was always concerned with the inadequacies of chain brakes and was experimenting with vacuum brakes before his retirement. Park eventually overcame Webb's aversion to bogies and radial chassis where finally abandoned in 1892 and replaced with 8ft bogies.

In 1893 the LNWR built it's first corridor train with a tentative step into electric lighting too, though gas lighting was still being installed in some new builds well into the 20th century.

The outward appearance of stock prior to Parks appointment had been of a varied design. From the early 1890's the familiar large panel above the waist with no lower eave bead, had become the norm. Coach lengths had also started to increase from the short 6 and 8 wheel stocks 28,30 and 42 foot. First came short lived 45 footers, soon to be replaced by what became the standard 50 ft. Due to the increased weight of the longer stock, the LNWR where finding their loco's inadequate to the task in hand, but that's another story.

Roofs still remained in the early low Arc profile for a while, but were then replaced with Cove roofs and later the elliptical profile.

Most of the diagrams in these sets had a reasonably long life in passenger service, lasting into the 50's before being withdrawn. Very few received the first BR liveries, just left in their LMS Lake and patch painted where necessary, with numbers replaced with BR Gill Sans font.