Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

194 ENGINEERING WONDERS OF THE WORLD. Fig. 1.—STANDARD EXPRESS ENGINE, GREAT EASTERN RAILWAY. Cylinders, 19 inches by 26 inches. Coupled wheels, 7 feet diameter. Heating surface, 1,7O6J square feet. Weight of engine, 51£ tons. Designed by Mr. J. Holden. In this design the cylinders are between the frames—a usual British practice with engines of this class—and hardly any mechanism is visible. The boiler is of large size, and fitted with a large fire-box of the Belpaire type, having the crowns of the outer and inner fire-boxes flat, to enable ordinary rod stays to be used in place of the complicated staying devices usually needed for round-topped outer fire-boxes. Some of these engines are adapted for burning oil fuel, and carry special apparatus, operated by exhaust steam, for ejecting ashes thrown down in the smoke-box by the spark arrester inside. The two pipes seen at the base of the smoke-box are part of this apparatus. Cylinders, 18 inches by 26 inches. Coupled wheels, 6 feet 8| inches. Heating surface, 1,818 square feet. Working pressure, 200 lbs. per square inch. A famous locomotive—the first to run from London to Plymouth without a stop. Another engine of the same class, the “ City of Truro,” is credited with an authentic speed of 102’2 miles per hour, the highest ever recorded in the British Isles. Observe that the driving wheels are set inside the frames, and that the boiler has no steam dome. The barrel of the boiler tapers from the first ring to the junction with the fire-box, where its diameter is largest. This form of boiler construction is now the standard on the Great Western Railway, its advantage being that increased steam space is provided at the point where steam generation is most rapid.