late to the bars a large amount of live fuel drops down into
the ash-pit, and if this should be thrown into the furnace again, the
fire is deadened immediately. There is no economy in this method, which
I tried years ago but never continued since.

32. _Question._--Is there any difference, and if so, what is it, in
locomotive and stationary boiler stoking?

_Answer._--There is a wide difference between the methods, not only of
firing but of the general work of the firemen and the stoker. (I cannot
see why one should be called stoker and the other fireman, for they
both have to keep the fire going and the steam up). The loco. fireman
had to be at the engine shed forty-five minutes, and the driver thirty
minutes, before the time of the train starting; the fireman gets the
stores necessary for the journey, such as oil, tallow, cotton waste,
yellow grease, and perhaps fog signals, gets his lamps from the lamp
room already trimmed--these are the head lamp, side lamp, water gauge
lamp, tail lamp and hand lamp; he places the head lamp on the right hand
side of the buffer plank, the side lamp on the left side of the tender,
the gauge lamp close to the glass, the tail lamp behind the tender; he
has to take his engine to be coaled (it used to be coke in my early days
on the L. & N. W. R.), and fills his tender with water, and brings his
engine over a pit, fills the axle-boxes of engine and tender; by this
time the driver shows up, and goes under the engine and thoroughly
examines every part of the gear; then he oils her, and both men sign on
for the particular train that the engine's number is in line with, and
run down the incline to Euston, where they hook on to their train and
wait. If it should turn out to be a particularly heavy train, the driver
will request the pilot-engine driver to hook on and go perhaps as far as
Tring or Wolverton with the train, otherwise the pilot will detach at
the top of the incline at Camden; if it should be a night train, with
the pilot in front, it is an experience never to be forgotten by a young
stoker. (I was not far in my teens when I had this experience, but an
old man now). And at last the signal is given us to start; we blow the
whistle and off we go, two engines panting, puffing, sending up showers
of sparks, and soon we leave Camden behind, and by the time we reach
Watford we are travelling about fifty miles an hour; this is the speed
to test the stoker who has to light his lamps the