I wonder if any railway buffs can help with a small query? I am indexing a
print of a 19th century poem about "a pleasure trip to Marsden Rocks, on the
13th of September, 1848". (Marsden Rocks are on the north east coast of
England, between Sunderland and South Shields.)
The trip described by the poem is by boat, so why on earth the printer should
have put a picture of a loco and 2 carriages at the bottom I don't know --
probably just had a nice piece of type he wanted to use. But it's a nice
little engraving. It's about 9 cm. long x 2 cm. high.
The locomotive has a 2-2-2 wheel arrangement and inside cylinders, and is
apparently called "Centaur". It has a 4-wheel tender, pulling two early
4-wheel carriages. These have 3 closed compartments each, with luggage on the
roofs; the first also has a guard sitting on its roof.
If anyone could give me any more information (off the list if it's not of
special interest to everyone), I'd be interested to hear it. I'd particularly
like to know a bit more about the loco -- e.g. was it built by such-and-such a
firm for such-and-such a railway company? (The north east of England is the
most likely place to start looking, but it could be anywhere.)
I'm doing this as input for a "Tomorrow's History" project, input of details
to be finished by this Friday (11th)! It should (eventually -- in 2 to 5
months...?) appear on the Tomorrow's History website, which you can get an
idea of now -- see:
http://www.communigate.co.uk/ne/tomorrowshistory/index.phtml
http://thenortheast.com/northlib/
Roger Fern.
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Roger Fern
Failed Librarian
Newcastle upon Tyne
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