Model (scale 1:8) of Patrick Stirling's Great Northern Railway passenger locomotive, 8ft drivers, 776 class; sectional drawing of engine and tender; nine negatives.

This is a model of an express passenger locomotive of the Great Northern Railway. Patrick Stirling, chief mechanical engineer of the Great Northern Railway, designed this class of locomotive in 1870. For the next thirty years or so the locomotives hauled express trains between London and cities in north-east England. As each of the single pair of driving wheels was 8 feet in diameter they became popularly known as the `Stirling 8-feet singles'. The model, made to scale 1:8, is of an engine built in 1887, which differs little from the earlier examples. It was made by Frank L. Baines of the firm of Baines Brothers, Engineers and Motor Manufacturers, of Central Works, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. Starting in 1895, it took Baines 10 years to complete the model, working in his spare time. Baines used a set of drawings supplied by a friendly draughtsman at the GNR's Doncaster works, and the model is built exactly to scale, using as far as possible the same kinds of materials as on the full-size locomotives. It was displayed at the 1905 Motor Show at Olympia and was afterwards purchased by the Science Museum. Its construction was described in The Model Engineer and Electrician for 9 March 1905.