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Anonymous: “M. KIRTLEY’S MIDLAND ENGINE, BUILT 1866-68.” Fig. 216 in Ernest L. Ahrons, The British Steam Railway Locomotive, 1825–1925, London: The Locomotive Publishing Company Limited, and New York: Spon & Chamberlain, 1927, p. 170.

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168   The British Steam Railway Locomotive from 1825 to 1925
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     Four-coupled Express and Passenger Engines.—[...] [...]

170   The British Steam Railway Locomotive from 1825 to 1925
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     For the Derby-Manchester section and also in anticipation of the opening in 1868 of the main
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          Swain Sc.   “The Engineer”
          FIG. 216—M. KIRTLEY’S MIDLAND ENGINE, BUILT 1866-68
line extension from Bedford to St. Pancras, for the traffic on which the existing single engines were not suitable in view of the gradients, the Midland Railway placed in service a type of 2-4-0 fast passenger engine, of which there were two distinct designs, though the general dimensions were similar. Both classes had 16½in. by 22in. cylinders, 4ft. 2in. leading and 6ft. 2½in. coupled wheels, with a wheel base of 8ft. + 8ft. 6in. = 16ft. 6in. Like all Midland passenger engines built before 1870, the boilers, which carried 140 lb. pressure, had raised fire-box casings. But the details of the motion and outside framing were entirely different, and as they represent typical designs, both are illustrated. The engines—Fig. 216—were designed and built at Derby in 1866-68. The outside plate frames were of the slotted out type, the ties between the horns being solid with the plates. The cylinders were horizontal, and the' valve spindles were supported by the usual Midland type of guides bolted by means of flanges to the upper slide bars, of which there were four. These engines, which have done excellent service, seem to bear a charmed life, chiefly on account of the strength and solid design of the original frames. They were rebuilt by S. W. Johnson in 1895-99, with 18in. by 24in. cylinders, and nearly twenty of them are still at work, under London, Midland and Scottish Rly. Nos. 1 to 22.
     Of the other class—Fig. 217—thirty were built by Beyer, Peacock and Co. in 1867, and were typical of this firm’s double plate framed engine. The frames were not so deep as those of the Derby-built engines, and were without the tie connections between the horns. The platforms were lower. The tires were of Krupp steel. The valve spindles were suspended by swing links from brackets attached to the motion plate. These engines also did good service for a period of thirty to thirty-five years, but the writer understands that the design was not so adaptable for the larger 18in. by 24in. cylinders, which were later required, and they were broken up.
     The original boilers of the above engines were 11ft. long by 3ft. 11 in. diameter inside the front ring, and contained 168 2in. tubes. The total heating surface was 1071½ square feet, of which the fire-box supplied 80. 1 square feet; grate area, 14.8 square feet; the average weight was 33¼ tons.
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     1866-69   177
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     Cabs.—The elaborate “American” cab on Stephenson’s engine of 1860 (Fig. 186 ante) might be expected to have been received with favour, but that was far from being the case. There were two obstacles. Many locomotive superintendents considered that if drivers were made too comfortable some were prone to fall asleep on duty, but it is also true that the drivers themselves objected to being closed in. They were a hardy lot in those days. The usual protection consisted merely of a flat weatherboard placed at the back on the top of the fire-box casing. On the Midland Railway in 1863 some boys threw bricks down from an overbridge at Loughborough, severely injuring a driver, after which M. Kirtley gave better protection by bending the top of the weatherboard completely over the footplate, supporting it at the back by means of two columns. This form of weatherboard rattled when the engine was running, and the twenty engines or so fitted with it were known as the “drummers.” The drivers objected strongly to it, and asked for its removal. A compromise was reached whereby the weatherboard was bent over part only of the footplate and was not supported by pillars. This arrangement, shown in Fig[s.] 134[, 184, 203, 216, 217, 244 and 264], was standard on the Midland until 1872.

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