In 2001 the Editor was kind enough to publish in two parts (April and June) ‘A Singular Double’, an account by this author of the two recent British locomotives as shown at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. These were Francis Webb's London & North Western Railway three-cylinder compound 2-2-2-2 No.3435 Queen Empress and Frederick Charles Winby's private venture four-cylinder simple 4-2-2-0 James Toleman. On the face of it, that the British railway industry should have represented itself in the United States at that late date with two locomotives, both of which had uncoupled driving wheels. seems extraordinary. The probable explanation is that most British companies, though obviously not the LNWR and Westwood & Winby, by then would have considered the trouble and expense simply not worth the likely outcome. A third British example was shown, the Great Western Railway 7ft gauge Lord of the Isles, purely as a historic artifact, but one of which Swindon was rightly proud (a fact which leads one to ask why it was cut up by the company a little over a decade later).
It is the case, however, that was well received, as was the entire LNWR exhibit, and following closure of the Exposition successfully travelled to New York under its own steam, generating considerable public interest along the way. , on the other hand, although whilst on display it was widely praised for the quality of workmanship and fine finish by the maker Hawthorn, Leslie & Co., proved when put to the test subsequently to be of no practical use. How it came to be tried on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul is not recorded, but likely it was through the influence of E. P. Ripley, Chairman of the 1893 Exposition Transportation Committee and at the
