| Description | Vacuum and Blowing Engines (58 items).
Eight horizontal engines (four pairs of two), with 36 inch cylinders, 6 foot strokes. Engines HF to HH, HS and HT never completed.
Coloured drawings from the London office, Feb. 1846: "General Arrangement of Engine House" (plan and section), parts of engines (cylinder, pump, condenser etc.).
Coloured original drawings, May 1846: plan of the boiler house (with tracing copy), longitudinal section of boiler house (with tracing copy), transverse section of boiler house; reverse drawings, Aug. 1846 - transverse sections, plan and longitudinal section of engine house; coloured drawings, Sep. 1846 - plan and sections of engines (4 drawings on 1 sheet); coloured plan and longitudinal elevation of engines, Oct. 1846; plans and section of engine house - 2 undated and uncoded sheets of tracings.
Cylinder, nozzles etc. - coloured original drawing; air pump, condenser etc. - partially coloured reverse drawing; connecting rod, cross bar, guide frame, arm for working air pump etc., - coloured original and partially coloured reverse drawings; plan of engine house showing sleeper plates - coloured original drawing; sleeper plates with general view of the engine - partially coloured original and coloured reverse drawings; vacuum pump - coloured original and sketches; piston rods - reverse drawing; steam, safety and emptying pipes, safety valves etc. - partially coloured original and reverse drawings; working gear - partially coloured elevations and plan; gearing to close the vacuum pump valves - reverse drawing; fly wheel - original and coloured reverse drawings; cylindrical slide valve - coloured original and coloured reverse drawings; plan of engine house showing sleeper plates etc. - coloured original and coloured reverse drawings; segment with wrought iron pin for connecting fly wheels - partially coloured reverse drawing; crank shaft and plummer blocks - partially coloured original and partially coloured reverse drawings; expansion gearing - original, "Foundry Copy" and reverse drawing; working gear (eccentric and rod etc.) - partially coloured original and reverse drawing; governor and throttle valve gearing, boiler feed mouth, fire door etc. - partially coloured original drawings; feed valve - partially coloured original and reverse drawings. All these drawings bear letter codes.
Also the following sketches and uncoded drawings: eccentric rod, wrought iron connecting rod, crank and shaft, gauge cock, outer end of plummer block.
Also tracings of plan and sections of engine house and pump showing engine design by Maudslay Sons & Field, marked "For Maudslay's engines on the London & Croydon Railway, 12 Jun. 1846, left at Soho by Mr. Samuda that an Estimate might be sent to him for the pump."
Also the following drawings and sketches for the later owners of the engines, 1852:
London & North Western Railway (engines HC and HD):
Plan of sleeper plates; crank shaft, expansion gear - partially coloured reverse drawings; expansion gear shafting - rough sketch.
James Toy & Son (Engine HE):
Sketches of crank and shaft and rods etc. for feed pump.
Original Portfolio or 'Book' No. 977, 1015, 1016. Catalogue of Old Engines p. 272.
For the London Croydon & Epsom Railway. Engines and vacuum pumps for atmospheric railway. The engines are referred to on several of the drawings as 50 horse power engines, but the Catalogue of Old Engines gives the nominal horse power as 50.1. The engines were intended to be erected in four pairs, at London Bridge, Carshalton, Cheam and Epsom. However work was suspended on them late in 1846 and they were never erected for the railway.
The first two engines, HC and HD, were sold to the London & North Western Railway in Sep. 1852, and erected at Crewe, where they powered a rolling mill. A new book, No. 1015, was opened for them. They were erected as non-condensing engines, but converted to condensing engines in Jul. 1853.
The third engine, HE, may have been intended for the South Devon Railway following the London Croydon & Epsom's cancellation, as its entry in Engine Order Book No. 13 is marked "Probably at Torquay". However it was never sold to the South Devon Railway, and in Sep. 1852 it was sold to James Toy & Son, who occupied part of Soho Manufactory. A new book was opened for Toy & Son, No. 1016.
See also: Portfolio 5/1357 (expansion gear for the London North Western Railway).
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