Let us, however, return to the advent of the new century, for we have yet a long way to go. The boom of big and yet bigger locomotives continued, and the Midland and Great Northern were ordering consignments of new giants from the Baldwin works in America. Men became smaller by comparison with the vibrating monsters they drove, but they kept a sure and steady hand in control. The Lancashire & Yorkshire led the way for a time in big engines, with the gigantic ten-wheeled four-coupled express engines of the "1400" class, and next came the great "2001" class of the North Eastern Railway. The Midland and Great Northern were installing the "Mogul "freight engines, and there was talk of one running in America which in itself weighed over 103 tons. "What are we coming to?" men asked, and all the time the companies said they were unable to concede the ten hours day and still adhere to the working conditions of 1890. Footplate men were seeking other work at 5s, a week less wages because the chances of promotion became so remote. The Railway Nationalisation League, as it was then called, was active in advocating State railways, and in America the big private companies had so standardised parts that they were building locomotives in the massed style which they applied to sewing machines.
Automatic couplings, to make shunting and transit safer, were being discussed, and a Bill to make them compulsory was introduced, but withdrawn because the companies took strong objection to the expense involved. The South African War was proceeding, and a number of our members were out there driving, having engines fitted with pump and hose to draw water from streams within reach during their long veldt journeys. A corps of railway engineers left Crewe on October 9th, 1899, to undertake railway work in South Africa, many of whom were members of our Crewe branch. The great feature of the years 1900-1905 was keen interest in the mechanical side of railways, especially of engines, just as the great feature of to-day is the keen interest in the human side of railway working.
Theophilus T. Millman, of Tondu branch, was Chairman of the
