Book Reviews
F. W. Webb’s Three-cylinder Compounds
By Peter Davis, published by the London & North Western Railway Society, ISBN 9780-9570158-5-2, 268pp hardback, £30.00
At last, a definitive account of the Webb three-cylinder compounds! These were distinguished by two small high pressure outside cylinders, and an exceptionally large diameter low pressure middle cylinder. This unique system was primarily confined to 80 2-2-2-0 and twenty 2-2-2-2 express passenger engines, together with 111 0-8-0 heavy goods engines, that were built by Crewe Works for the London & North Western Railway between 1882 and 1900. All of these had either been scrapped, or in the case of the goods engines, converted to simple expansion, by 1913.
It has been traditional to dismiss Webb’s three-cylinder passenger engines in particular as aberrations, but there was…