The Furness Railway Company is certainly notorious for the manner in which it preserves its locomotives; not only has it the two old Bury engines (already described) yet in active service, but there are still at work on the same Company’s iron roads other engines manufactured as long ago as 1854. These locomotives are first cousins to Bury’s four wheel (coupled) goods engines; they were built by Fairbairn, of Manchester, and have cylinders 15in. diameter, with a stroke of 24in. Of course, they are technically inside cylinder—i.e., of the Bury “inside” type, with the cylinders within the frames, but below the smoke-box, instead of within it. The cylinders are, in fact, but a few inches above rail level; they incline upwards, and the connecting-rods pass beneath the leading axle and actuate the trailing axle; the four wheels are 4ft. 9in. diameter, and are coupled by means of round section side-rods; the wheel base is 7ft. 9in.; the frames are of the inside bar pattern; the fire-box is round, with circular top, and surmounted by a double Salter safety valve. The boiler is 11ft. 2in. long and of 3ft. 11in. mean diameter; it contains 148 tubes, 2in. diameter. The total heating surface is 940 sq. ft.; steam pressure, 120lb.; weight of engine in working order, 22½tons. There is no dome on the boiler; but some modern attachments have been fixed on the upper portion of the round fire-box, the steam pressure gauge being very noticeable. The tender is supported on four wheels of 3ft. diameter, the wheel base being 8ft., capacity of tank 1,000 gallons, and coal space 100ft.; weight in working order, 14½ tons. The tender has outside frames, and the brake actuates blocks to both sides of the four wheels. These engines are used for working goods and mineral traffic over the Furness Railway. The particular engine we have been describing is “No. 9.”

“Ovid” (Fig. 71) represents a type of bogie saddle-tank engines, with four-coupled wheels, designed by D. Gooch for working the passenger trains on the steep inclines of the South Devon Railway. The cylinders were 17in. diameter, with a stroke of 24in. The coupled wheels were 5ft. in diameter. Weight, in working order, 38½ tons, Steam pressure, 120 lbs. per square inch. “Ovid” was built by Hawthorn in 1854.

“Plato” (Fig. 72) was one of the six-coupled banking engines, designed by Gooch for the South Devon Railway. She was built at Swindon in 1854. The steam pressure, cylinders, stroke, and weight were the same as in the “Ovid” class. The wheels were 5ft. in diameter. The tanks contained 740 gallons of water. The rectangular projection in front of the smoke-box is the sand-box!

Neilson and Co., of the Hyde Park Works, Glasgow, produced in 1855 a type of outside cylinder goods engine. Readers will remember that at that period goods locomotives were not necessarily of the six or eight wheels coupled description; they more generally had but the leading and driving wheels coupled. This type of engine, it will be remembered, is now usually described as “four-coupled in front” or a “mixed traffic” engine. The locomotive in question was built for the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, and was numbered “353” in Neilson and Co.’s books.

The boiler was of considerable length, and appeared longer from the fact that the fire-box top was not raised, so that a long, unbroken line of boiler top met the eye, relieved at the extremity of the fire-box end by being surmounted by an immense steam dome, on the top of which was fixed an enclosed Salter safety valve. The horizontal outside cylinders were below the foot-plate side frames, located as usual at the smoke-box end. Their diameter was 16in. and stroke 22in. The coupled wheels were 5ft. and the trailing wheels 3ft. 6in. diameter.

The frames were “inside,” and the driving and leading wheels were provided with inside bearings only, but by a curious practice of bolting on to the main frames—at about the middle of the fire-box—an elongated portion, which curved outwards, the trailing wheels were provided with outside bearings. The rams actuating the boiler feed pumps were simply extensions of the piston-rods, the pumps being fixed between the leading and driving wheels. The engine was provided with a steam-pressure gauge, fixed on a vertical pillar over the top of the fire-box—indeed, in much the same position the steam gauge still occupies, save that “No. 353” had no cab or weather-board, and it therefore appeared singular to see the gauge in the place indicated.

Rotatory valves for locomotives are almost annual “inventions,” and as old friends as the “biggest gooseberry” and “sea serpent,” which appear regularly year by year. Under such circumstances, we may be excused for giving an account of Locking and Cook’s patent rotatory valve, fixed to the York and North Midland Railway engine, “No. 48,” on January 26th, 1854, and taken out in May of the same year, the locomotive in the interim having run 10,000 miles. “No. 48” was used on the Hull and Bridlington branch; and although she was an old engine, having been built for the Hull and Selby Railway in 1840, yet with the rotatory valve, good old “48” is stated to have consumed 20 per cent. less coke than a modern engine doing the same work on the same branch; we also read that when the valve was removed no perceptible wearing was to be noticed. We are not, however, aware that “No. 48” or any other of the York and North Midland Railway locomotives were afterwards fitted with Locking and Cook’s patent rotatory valves.

Mr. G. Tosh, locomotive superintendent of the Maryport and Carlisle Railway, designed in 1854 a powerful goods engine to work the heavy mineral traffic over the railway. This engine had six-coupled wheels, 4ft. 7in. diameter; cylinders, 16¾in. by 22in. stroke; heating surface—tubes, 1,181ft.; fire-box, 84ft.; total, 1,265 sq. ft.; steam pressure, 120lb.; weight, 26 tons 12 cwt.; cost, £2,175. She hauled a train of 100 loaded wagons, weighing 445 tons, for a distance of 28 miles in 1¾ hours. The line is of a very undulating character, including an ascent nine miles long, one mile of which is 1 in 192. The wagons were borrowed from the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway, and the 100 only weighed 172 tons, or an average of less than 1¾ tons each.

The dead weight of mineral wagons has largely increased since 1854, although it is to be feared their carrying capacity has not increased in the same proportion.

About this time, the growth of narrow-gauge lines in the districts served by the G.W.R., together with the amalgamations and alliances of narrow-gauge railways with the G.W.R., made it necessary for the latter railway to provide narrow-gauge engines. Fig. 73 represents one of the first narrow-gauge Great Western locomotives. It will be seen that Daniel Gooch introduced all his well-known features into these engines. These locomotives were built by Beyer, Peacock, and Co. The “single” driving wheels were 6ft. 6in. diameter, the cylinders being 15½in. diameter, and the stroke 22in. Compensation levers connected the leading and driving springs.

In 1855 Sir D. Gooch designed a class of coupled express broad-guage engines for the Great Western Railway. These engines had a group of four leading wheels, like the “Lord of the Isles” class. The driving and trailing wheels were coupled, and were 7ft. in diameter. At that time, no coupled wheels of so large a diameter had been constructed. The cylinders were 17in. diameter, with a 24in. stroke. R. Stephenson and Co. built the engines, of which there were 10. They were a most successful class of engine, and ran about 500,000 miles each before being “scrapped.” “Robin Hood” (Fig. 74) was one of these engines. By reference to the illustration, it will be seen that the tender was fitted with the sentinel box for the “travelling porter” that formerly accompanied the G.W. broad-gauge expresses.

Fig. 75 represents the inspection or cab engine of the N.B.R., it is numbered 879, and was originally built by Messrs. Neilson and Co., in 1850, for the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway. She is now used for inspection purposes. The cylinders are 10in. diameter by 15in. stroke. Other dimensions are: Wheels, leading and trailing, 3ft. diameter; driving, 5ft. diameter; wheel base, 15ft. 8in.; centre of leading to centre of driving, 10ft. 8in.; centre of driving to centre of trailing, 5ft. Tubes, No. 88, 1¾in. diameter outside. Heating surface: Tubes, 324 sq. ft.; fire-box, 35 sq. ft.; total, 359 sq. ft. Fire-grate, 5 sq. ft. Weight, in working order, 22 tons 1cwt. 3qrs. Tank capacity, 426 gallons.