Written by Paul Jarman, our Assistant Director, this fascinating book covers the life and work of a lead mining locomotive, featuring 144 pages, 255 photographs, 14 drawings, 2 paintings, 3 period engravings and 2 maps! “In 1874 a small foundry in Poole, Dorset, manufactured its first successful railway locomotive. There was no hunger for glamour, but instead a desire to produce an affordable and effective steam engine for use of industrial narrow gauge tramways as might be employed in mining or manufacturing. Named locally Samson, this engine was the subject of just a single photograph and within two decades the mine in the Durham dales where it worked had closed and it was eventually sold for scrap in 1904. It was not forgotten, however, and lived on in the local cultural memory. In 2013 construction of a new Samson began at Beamish Museum, and three years later this new steam locomotive, a close reproduction of the original, was completed. This is the story of the original locomotive and it’s fascinating context. It is also the story of the new Samson, how it was built and what some of the motivations for its recreation were for those who undertook to explore an obscure branch of railway history and locomotive engineering. Size - 28cm x 22cm.