Mystery Number 222
– supplied by Ted Talbot
The engine is ‘Improved Precedent’s or ‘6ft 6in Jumbo’s or ‘Big Jumbo’s No. 2176 Robert Benson. The shed plate is 26 — Edge Hill.
On the back of the print is written: A. G. Ellis 20982 EM. Which means that it was numbered 20982 in A. G. Ellis’s list, and was taken by EM — Eric Mason
| Philip Millard — 06-Feb-2017 10.59 AM |
| Presumably the location is the MSJ&A platforms at Manchester London Road, and the engine is ready to work a train on the Broadheath line. |
| Harry Jack — 09-Feb-2017 12.45 PM |
| I’m sure Philip’s identification of the site is correct, despite the apparent lack of old photographs of the west end of London Road's MSJ&A platforms. The tall building would be the C&W Dept offices on platform 7 (old numbering) of the main station. Eric Mason visited Manchester in 1910 if not earlier, and in the 1920s he worked at nearby Agecroft engine shed, so I suppose the date of his photograph could be as late as 1927, when No 2176 was scrapped, still carrying its LNWR number. |
| Harry Jack — 11-Feb-2017 4.06 PM |
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Eric Mason was born on 14th November 1894, which is a clue to the earliest possible date for the photograph - say c.1910. In 1919 he became Shed Foreman at Agecroft, and remained there until his final appointment as Assistant District Motive Power Superintendent at Stoke-on-Trent in 1939. He wrote The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway in the 20th Century (Ian Allan, 1954) and — under the pseudonym ‘Rivington’ — My Life with Locomotives (Ian Allan, 1962). He died on 10th January 1970. |
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