File:Stephenson Patentee type 2-2-2 locomotive no 123 “Harvey Combe” built 1835, from Simm’s “Public Works of Great Britain” 1838, newly engraved + reprinted 1927 – No caption.jpg

Image is a scan of:
C. F. Cheffins: “ ‘THE HARVEY COMBE’ ENGINE. MR. STEPHENSON’S PATENT. PLATE LXXVIII. – ELEVATION OF STEPHENSON’S PATENT LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE.” Originally published as a plate in Frederick Walter Simms (editor), Public Works of Great Britain, London: John Weale, 1838, plate no. 78 in plate section following page 72,
newly engraved and reprinted in The Engineer, Sept. 24, 1926 (number and page not stated),
in turn reprinted in Ernest L. Ahrons, The British Steam Railway Locomotive, 1825–1925, London: The Locomotive Publishing Company Limited, and New York: Spon & Chamberlain, 1927, on the page facing the frontispiece.

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Text Appearing Before Image:
EXTRACT FROM   THE ENGINEER   SEPT. 24, 1926
Text Appearing After Image:
THE “HARVEY COMBE” FROM SIMM’S “PUBLIC WORKS OF GREAT BRITAIN”

“A CENTURY OF LOCOMOTIVE BUILDING BY ROBERT STEPHENSON AND CO.” : SOME CORRECTIONS AND NOTES.

SIR,—Presuming on the welcome which you gave my book entitled “A Century of Locomotive Building by Robert Stephenson and Co.” on its appearance, may I ask space for correction in regard to a notable locomotive, “Harvey Combe,” which has been quoted for many years past as typical of Stephenson’s standard patent engine as supplied to home and foreign railways, 1834-1840.
     The makers’ records state that the engine of this name, their No. 123, was intended for Belgium, but was supplied instead, on December 28th, 1835, to “Cubitt, of London.”
     Marshall, in his account of Robert Stephenson’s patent locomotive, published in 1838, illustrates an engine which he states “was made for Messrs. Cubitt, the contractors for a part of the London and Birmingham Railway near Berkhampstead. · · · When the works were nearly completed · · · it was purchased by the railway company for the purpose of · · · repairing the road · · · in which work it is now employed.” Marshall gives no name to the engine.
     Whishaw, not long afterwards, in his “Railways of Great Britain,” gives the Harvey Combe as on the books of the London and Birmingham Railway, where it was the more remarkable, indeed unique, as a Stephenson six-wheeled engine on a line equipped generally with four-wheeled engines by Bury.
     Wood, in a “Report to the Directors of the Great Western Railway,” December 10th, 1838, gives results of experiments on the Harvey Combe of the London and Birmingham Railway, to compare with contemporary experiments with the North Star of the Great Western Railway.
     In the face of all this evidence the identification of the engine illustrated by Marshall, with the Harvey Combe, listed by Whishaw, seemed absolute, although the various descriptions do not agree in regard to the number of tubes and some minor dimensions. Such discrepancies are, however, so common in early records of locomotives, that they did not seem to outweigh the case for identity, and the drawings from Marshall were therefore reproduced on pages 318, 319, of Robert Stephenson and Co.’s Centenary Book as of the Harvey Combe.
     But when engaged last year in collecting information for the reconstruction, at Swindon, of Stephenson’s North Star, 1837, I was led to doubt whether the single-lever, four-excentric reversing gear fitted to this engine, and shown by Marshall for the supposed Harvey Combe, had been fitted so early as December, 1835, when that engine was completed. This improved gear does not appear much before 1837–8 on such original Stephenson drawings as still exist. It is then found on drawings for the North Star, La Victorieuse, and engines for the Grand Junction and other railways.
      The makers’ original drawing of the Harvey Combe does not exist, but I have found in Simm’s “Public Works of Great Britain,” 1838, Plate LXXVIII., a drawing definitely stated to be of the Harvey Combe, which confirms my doubts. The engine shown has a four-handle loose-excentric reversing gear. (See illustration.)
     It appears therefore that either :—(a) Marshall did not illustrate the actual Harvey Combe, but a later and improved engine of the makers’ standard type, omitting to notice the difference in the reversing gear  ; or (b) by 1838 the Harvey Combe had been refitted with the improved gear.
     Until this point can be cleared up the name “Harvey Combe” applied to the engine shown by Marshall is at least doubtful. I am inclined now to think it is actually incorrect, and that the engines illustrated by Marshall and by Simms were never the same. It is remarkable that Bourne’s sketch of a locomotive at work in Berkhampstead Cutting—page 326, “A Century of Locomotive Building”—shows the dome behind the chimney as Simms does. Marshall shows it on the fire-box. Bourne was an accurate draughtsman, and his evidence helps to point to two distinct engines.

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