42 Book of Locomotives 



those which actually survive are utilised for 

 purely nominal duties. In a few years it 

 will be impossible to find the type, save in 

 a museum, of which that formed by the 

 London and North-Eastern railway at York 

 within recent years boasts already perhaps 

 the most famous engine of the long race of 

 singles; this is the No. i, an eight-footer 

 first introduced upon the Great Northern 

 in 1870, of which more anon. 



During the last century the single-driver 

 was always a favourite type, the famous 

 ' Rocket " of Stephenson design and build- 

 ing being the real precursor of the class so 

 far as public railways were concerned. The 

 story of the " Rocket " and her victory at 

 the Rainhill trials of 1829 i g doubtless so 

 familiar to my readers that I need not dwell 

 upon it here ; rather are we concerned with 

 the descendants of this remarkable old 

 engine. The " Rocket ", like most of the 

 engines of her day, was a four-wheeler, and 

 the next step in the evolution of the express 

 locomotive was the addition of a pair of 

 leading wheels; so came the wheel formula 



