Letter from Timothy Hackworth Sr., London Bridge Station to John Wesley Hackworth, Soho Works, Shildon

He has met Mr Wilson of Leeds whose new engine he describes. Wilson, after taking the engine back to Leeds hopes ‘to run 80 miles per hour with about 6 coaches’; ‘it has already cost them about £5000, they have taken out a patent’. He [Wilson] hopes ‘to run upon a narrow gauge line side by side with Brunells [sic]’; he 'expects to run faster than Brunell [sic]'. Hackworth speaks generally about the future of the locomotive engine: ‘simplicity & economy must be the order of the day’. He seems depressed by affairs and is ‘really very desirous to be at Home ... I have had enough of it this time’.