Long before mobile "railway" engines,(locomotives) many industries relied on "standing" engines which were utilised in many situations, including those previously mentioned by Alan...
To pull coal/goods etc using a winching system, at pithead, on waggonways (early wooden or metal rails) on docksides, in fields etc.
Although horses were used to hawl goods, a standing engine might be situated on an uphill stretch, to relieve the horses.
Censuses regularly record a man's or boy's occupation something like this " standing engine man/driver .
Some streets took their name from these old engines..
e.g. Engine Row, Engine Terrace.
(Somewhere west of Newcastle, I forget exactly where...
"Old Engine" or something like ?? Johnson's Engine... crops up as a birth-place...... a bit like the previous existance of a mill, gives a place part of it's name... e.g. Crofton Mill in Blyth)
Michael Dixon
