The Tank Engine 183 



farther up the line, they began to appear 

 on some of the non-stop trains. 



Not the most important expresses, of 

 course, but upon some which were running 

 on a very sharp timing between stops. To 

 us they seemed just a little unsteady, sway- 

 ing rather more because their side tanks 

 made them a trifle top-heavy, but the sway- 

 ing was never dangerous, though the motion 

 was sometimes felt behind the engine. 



There were at this time two or three 

 compound tank engines on the North- 

 Western, and we just loved to travel behind 

 them because, when they started, their 

 complicated driving mechanism imparted a 

 sort of row-boat motion to the whole train. 



These were all side- tanks, which means 

 that the water tanks were at the side of 

 the boiler, the coal being contained in a 

 bunker at the back of the foot-plate, thus 

 getting rid of the tender. 



It is not always realised that a good deal 

 of the space in the tender of a locomotive 

 is taken up by the water tanks which run 

 round three sides of it. 



