Page:Engines and men- the history of the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen. A survey of organisation of railways and railway locomotive men (IA enginesmenhistor00rayniala).pdf/39

 manufacturer, a railway contractor, a colliery and ironworks owner, particularly at Clay Cross. "I am now called George Stephenson. Esq., of Tapton House, near Chesterfield," he once said. "I have dined with princes, peers, and commoners, with persons of all classes from the humblest to the highest; I have dined off a red herring in the hedge bottom, and I have gone through immense drudgery, and the conclusion I have come to is that when we are all stripped there is not much difference."

He was unremitting to the end in his practical interest in the physical and mental welfare of his men, a worthy founder of a great calling.

All this time, however, the broad and narrow gauge controversy continued, and engines of great capacity were built as "ultimatums" to prove that they could do things which could not he done on the other gauge. For example, in 1853 the Bristol & Exeter Railway had some broad gauge tank-engines with wheels of nine feet diameter, which ran at eighty miles an hour. But the battle went in favour of the 4 feet 8½ inch gauge, and the Caledonian and the Great Northern each designed their fastest engines to suit that gauge. Train speed was a great cult seventy years ago, and by 1854 speeds were attained which were unbeaten in the great speed races to the North which were such a feature of competition in the '80's.

On the design of, the Midland Railway led the way in 1852 with what was then a very large class of express engine, with driving wheels of 6 feet 6 inches, and cylinders 16 by 22 inches. Six were constructed by Messrs. R. Stephenson & Ca., having no flanges on the driving wheels. In 1864 twenty engines of still greater power and size were built, having a working steam pressure of 140 lbs. Greater power and greater economy in fuel and running costs were aimed at all through the chapter of progress, until the twentieth century express engine represents the acme of steam engines. Changes during the last ten years have been minute compared to the strides of 1840 to 1850, and anything at all comparable could only come by a change to some other motive power. There is considerable difference of design in the engines on the