Big Question and Little Questions:
What is going on in these two photographs?
Why do people try to break records?
Is a record attempt of any practical use?
What do the letters G.E.R. stand for?
What's missing from the picture, without which the engine would never have been built?
How many people would you estimate it took?

For Information:
In 1888 a London and North Western Railway locomotive was built at Crewe in 25 ½ working hours. The staff of Stratford works on the Great Eastern Railway set out to beat this record in 1891. The numbers of men involved were:

on the engine - 3 chargemen; 39 fitters (including 3 boys), 2 smiths; and 44 boilermakers, rivet boys, etc.;

on the tender - 2 chargemen; 16 fitters; 16 boilermakers; and 20 labourers etc.

Under normal working conditions there were three gangs of men employed to build engines and two gangs on tenders used to carry the fuel and water. It took one week to produce two complete locomotives. For this attempt all five gangs worked on the same locomotive and tender. Completed after 9 hours and 47 minutes work, including its first coat of paint, the engine was in steam and ready for its trial trip a few hours later. According to the account in Engineering, the locomotive was put immediately into regular work 'continuously running with coal trains (weighing about 560 tons) between Peterborough and London'.

Significance:
As the article in Engineering pointed out 'from a strictly economical point of view such feats as we have described may by some be regarded as a mistake but…a successful performance of this kind is only possible under conditions which are themselves highly conducive to economy. Great rapidity of erection, such as has been attained at Stratford, means good working to gauge and standard dimensions, excellent organisation, and last but by no means least, a thoroughly good feeling between the employees and their managers and foremen. In the case of the performance at Stratford nothing was more noticeable than the heartiness and spirit with which all the men concerned entered into the work'.

Artefacts and Documents for Evidence:
Engineering at Newham Library Service.