THERE are lots of pictures, like this one, showing engines and crew outside Alpha Place in Saltburn. The first house in one of the first railway resorts was obviously a good place for posing for the early cameras.

With a magnifying glass, I can make out that this is Engine No 1240. It was built in 1872 at North Road Works in Darlington to designs by William Bouch - brother of Sir Thomas whose Tay Bridge was about to fall over quite spectacularly and most fatally.

It would appear that No 1240 was of the Ginx's Babies class of engines.

Apparently, Edward Jenkins, from 1874-80 the MP for Dundee (on the north side of the Tay Bridge, of course, although that appears wholly coincidental to this story) wrote a satirical novel about the Poor Law - the system by which the state tried to avoid looking after the very poorest in society. The novel, published in 1871, was called "Ginx’s baby: his birth and other misfortunes". It seems the said baby, born into poverty, became a victim of rival philanthropists who battle to provide it with religious education. The book was a popular success.

It is said that the reason this class of engine was called "Ginx's Babies" was that it was bedevilled by a fault which couldn't be designed out. Indeed, "Mr Ginx couldn't get rid of his babies and Mr Bouch couldn't get rid of his valve problems".