After reading this article in RECORD 14 I contacted an old friend who is still driving for Samuel Williams & Sons Ltd. He stated without prompting that No.6 arrived at Dagenham Dock in pieces and bore the name NOTTINGHAM; it also had a weather shield similar to that on LINDEN (see photograph on page 17 of RECORD 1).

    (This information is at variance with the recollections of other employees of Williams who recalled No.6 being previously named SWANSEA - see page 39, RECORD 14. Mr Alliez has asked whether "1878" in the footnote on page 39 should read "1888", but Mr Horsman confirms that 1878 is correct. Hunslet No.1 was reboilered in 1878 to Order 3915 the drawings being dated 17th September 1878 and endorsed "Engine LINDEN, renamed PATRICROFT". It was again reboilered in 1888 to Order 10823, the drawings being dated 11th September 1888 and marked "Engine No.1". - Hon. Eds)

    On re−reading this article in RECORD 18 I have noticed an error on page 202 concerning the Vanguard works numbers. The "V" suffix indicates a new locomotive (not "S" as stated), whilst a "C" suffix (there is no "S") shows that the locomotive was converted from steam or has been re−engined.

    I find I can add something to the information given in Mr Clingan's letter on page 265 of RECORD 19. St Leonard 921 was one of four 0−6−0 side tank locomotives comprising the eighth batch of class 4AC, makers' numbers 920-923. As St Leonard 920 worked on the metre gauge Vasco-Navarro railway in Spain, it seems possible that 921 was also built for the metre gauge.

    Ken Fleming is wrong when he says (RECORD 21, page 313) that with the scrapping of Lambton No.53 the last surviving Taff Vale locomotive is GORDON at Caerphilly, for No.53 was outlived at Philadelphia by Lambton No.52 (ex Taff Vale 85). 52 (Neilson Reid 5408 of 1899) ran a last trip on 4th August 1967, being withdrawn from service as a result of a crack in her firebox which can easily be repaired. The Railway Preservation Society is trying to save No.52 as a working exhibit on the Chasewater branch, near Birmingham, and would welcome donations to achieve this aim. My photograph of No.52 was taken at Philadelphia in December 1968.

    I am pleased to say that Neilson 2937 of 1882, mentioned on page 199 of RECORD 17, is now safe at Chasewater, having been moved from Gartsherrie on 15th June 1968. An R.P .S. member has acquired Peckett 2081 of 1947 from Swan Village Gas Works (see drawings on pp. 300-301 of RECORD 20) and this is also destined for Chasewater.

    Readers may wish to make a note of the steam open days arranged for this year at Chasewater. These are 5th and 6th July (subject to confirmation) and 30th August to 1st September. Visitors will be made welcome on any weekend although steam locomotives will not be running.

     (Whilst we are pleased to hear of any steam locomotive saved from the scrapheap we wonder how many more Pecketts will be preserved. Is there nobody with the necessary cash interested in preserving just one example from the Yorkshire Engine Company? - Hon Eds.)

    I was most interested in Keith Farmer's article in RECORD 20, especially that part on page 274 relating to the Clee Hill Quarries which in 1913 were owned by Field & MacKay Ltd, and later by British Quarrying Co Ltd. However, Mr Farmer did not mention the standard gauge mineral line operated by the GWR from Bitterley Yard to Clee Hill Dhu Stone Quarries via a self-acting incline. The Dhu Stone Quarries worked a long face in more or less solid rock, while the Titterstone Quarry was separated by a deep valley between itself and them. Titterstone Quarry was not solid rock like the Dhu stone quarry, but consisted of large boulders embedded in soft earth - hence the name. The large basalt boulders were split up into sizes the knapper could handle by heating, and shattered into fragments with gun-like reports. The outside skin of the boulders was a bright yellowy brown, which contrasted sharply with the blue-grey of the stone inside, making Titterstone stone easily recognizable anywhere. In contrast to the Dhu Stone Quarries, Titterstone Quarry was served by a narrow gauge self-acting incline about a mile and a quarter long, which ended in Bitterley yard, at a higher level than the standard gauge sidings; this enabled the metal tipping wagons to discharge their stone down shoots into the standard gauge wagons in the yard below. Shunting of the wagons on Field & McKay's side of the yard, was effected by a Blackstone oil engine and wire-rope.

    Mr Farmer mentions the crusher. Now in 1913, I was installing electric lighting for Field & MacKay Ltd, and at that time I think there were four crushing and screening plants at work, Nos 2, 4, 5, and 7, driven variously by steam, and suction-gas plants. The original No 1 plant had been erected at the Bitterley yard, and had been operated by a water-turbine. There were several smaller self-acting inclines in the quarry itself, which was 1200 feet above sea-level. I was there when the new locomotive mentioned by Mr Farmer arrived (Avonside 1666) and can well remember the excitement its ascent of the self-acting incline caused among the villagers at Bedlam village. I never saw any other locomotive at Field & MacKay's Quarry, but I know there were locomotives working at the Dhu Stone Quarries as I often discerned the exhaust on frosty mornings.

    Now as to stone leaving Titterstone Quarry by road, the only road I can remember on Titterstone mountain was the road which ended in Bedlam known as "Bedlam Bank", part of which was about 1 in 3, whereas the main road from Ludlow up Angel Bank passed the Dhu Stone Quarries. I wonder if Mr Farmer has mixed the quarries in his mind; still 55 years is quite a while, and lots could have happened in that time, but at the time I mention the :quarries were quite separately owned.