The year is 1912 and the LB&SC Railway with it’s promised improvements to the Brighton service have just turned out of their workshops a second heavy tank locomotive of the 4-6-2 type, similar in appearance to the prototype ‘Abergavenny’, designed by Mr. D. Earle Marsh. This latest addition, which is numbered 326, and named ‘Bessborough’, is fitted with Walshaerts valve gearing outside the frames, this giving it a distinctive appearance, and doubtless raising the general efficiency. The cylinders are 21 ins. diameter by 26-in. stroke, coupled wheels 6 ft. 7 ins. diameter, and a total heating surface 1,865 sq. ft. The boiler is equipped with Schmidt superheating apparatus, and the total weight of the engine is 86 tons, of which 56 tons is available for adhesion.

A new class of  4-6-0 locomotive is being introducd on the North-Eastern Railway by the Chief Mechanical Engineer Mr. Vincent Raven.  These engines have outside cylinders and resemble in general outward appearance those having the same wheel arrangement, designed by Mr. Wilson Worsdell, who, unless the writer’s memory is at fault, was the first to adopt the   4-6-0 type for purely passenger traffic on an English Railway. These latest engines have coupled wheels 6 ft. 1 1/4 ins. in diameter driven by cylinders 20 ins. by 26 ins., and superheated steam is employed.

The total heating surface of the boiler, with firebox , is 1,821 sq. ft., and the grate area is 23 sq. ft. The locomotives rank as express goods engines and ten of them have been completed at the company’s works at Darlington.

New Great Northern Locomotives. Mr. H. N. Gresley has signalised his taking over the reins of government at Doncaster by introducing an entirely new type of locomotive for the Great Northern Railway. This is of the 2-6-0 or Mogul pattern with outside cylinders, Walschearts valve gear, and Schmidt superheater. The new design, to which ten locomotives are now being constructed, presents a pleasing and substantial appearance. The boiler is of ample proportions and has the ordinary type of firebox. Steam at 170 lbs. pressure is distributed by 10-in. piston valves to the cylinders as before said, through the medium of Walschearts gear. Thus the design has all the most modern and approved features, and the locomotives so constructed may be expected to give a good account of themselves.