The total number of engines constructed at these works from their establishment up to the end of April, 1888, was 3,031, of which no less than 146 were constructed in one year, viz., the year ending the 30th November, 1872. In addition to constructive works, however, about 2,000 engines annually undergo repairs, there being usually about 330 in the works for that purpose at one time.
The old works are now entirely devoted to the manufacture and repair of engines, and contain a shop for their erection, three repairing shops, a wheel shop, a fitting and turning shop, a smithy and forge, and a spring shop and copper smithy, as also the offices and general stores. With the exception of the light forgings and smiths' work made in this smithy, the various parts of the engines are brought to the old works in their rough state from other portions of the works; for instance, the frames and other wrought-iron plates come from the plate mill; the crank and straight axles, the tyres, the spring steel, the coupling and connecting rods, and other steel forgings come from the forge at the steel works; and the cylinders, wheels, horn blocks, axle-boxes, and other iron and brass castings come from the foundry. The different portions of the finished work ultimately find their way to the erecting shop, where the actual fabric of the engine is built up, and, as soon as the frame or skeleton is complete, the boiler is added. The engine is then grasped by two overhead travelling cranes, reaching down like giant hands, and is run bodily out of the shop in order that the boilers may be tested. This done, it is conveyed back to the shop, and the boiler is covered in, and all the remaining portions of the internal machinery
