A.R. Bell's Modern locomotive design

Component of Railway mechanical engineering. Essentially this is a review of British steam locomotive design as it was in the early 1920s, post Churchward's The Great Bear, but prior to Gresley's first Pacific. Table 1 lists the largest heating surfaces in British locomotives, 1896-1920 which are ranked by date rather than by size: thus it begins with the Jones Goods and ends with Urie's 496 class. The largest heating surface tabulated was on Drummond's 330 class, which does not inspire confidence in this listing. Furthermore, Churchward's No. 40 is identified as a "compound".

Boiler design is considered in terms of higher pressures, the Belpaire type, and the wide type (Wootten) as adopted by Ivatt and Marsh. The short-lived cylindrical corrugated firebox is mentioned as are Serve tubes. The large size of the boilers fitted to the Aspinall 4-4-2s is recorded and a note is made of the intermediate combustion chamber fitted in the boilers of Webb's Greater Britain class. The conical or tapered boiler is identified with Churchward and it is noted that this gave an increased heating surface as well as placing the greatest area adjacent to the firebox tubeplate, that is the hottest part of the boiler. Notes that the conical boiler was first used in Britain on Bromley's No. 492 when Weston's patent boiler and firebox was fitted to it. At that time only Churchward was constructing domeless boilers. Superheating is discussed, but not in great detail.

Compounding is examined. Bell records that Whale had been quick to convert most of Webb's compounds to simple propulsion. The Smith/Deeley system used on the Midland and the Smith system used on the North Eastern are both described, as is the L&YR system applied to 0-8-0s. A brief mention is made of Dean's experiments and Churchward's "failure" to progress the de Glehn type (and his abandonment of the 4-4-2 in favour of the 4-6-0 type) are highlighted. Ivatt's experiments are also observed. The spread of Walschaerts valve gear is noted.

A folding table lists pioneer four-cylinder simples. With the exxception of Churchward's locomotives for the Great Western, most were failures: notably those for the LSWR and L&YR. The G&SWR examples are also listed.

Table 8 lists Great Eastern four-coupled classes and Table 9 lists "representative" GWR locomotives: City, County and Earl Cawdor. The Great Bear is treated on its own. Folding tables list 4-4-2 and 4-6-0 types. Table 15 lists "typical" tank engines. Chapter 4 examines goods engines. The GWR Moguls are given emphasis. Table 18 lists 2-8-0 and 0-8-0 types.