James Basire after E. Barnard

Mess.rs England's Light Locomotive Engine
Which will take a train with 100 passengers at 45 miles per hour, the consumption of coke not exceeding 7lbs per mile

24 x 15.5

This charming lithograph takes us right back to the early days of steam locomotion in the middle of the C19th. It depicts one of the first engines to be produced by the firm, Messers England, founded by George England from Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1811-1878). They based themselves down at New Cross in Surrey at the 'Hatcham Iron Works' and the eagle eyed might even spot the patentees signage affixed to the barrel of the engine. Production commenced in 1848 and the firm exhibited this Light Locomotive Engine at The Great Exhibition in Hyde Park in 1851.

At the time, Britain was in the throes of Imperial expansion overseas and the Industrial Revolution at home. There was an obsession with mechanisation and a drive for efficiency. Any invention that saved time and increased productivity was championed by the state. Prince Albert, a great exponent of innovation and engineering, was hugely enthusiastic about the booming railway expansion of the 1840s and even persuaded Queen Victoria to take a ride from Slough to Paddington Station in the summer of 1842, the first British monarch to travel by train.