The accompanying engraving forms part of an advertisement of Alexander Shanks & Son (of Dens Ironworks, Arbroath, and 27 Leadenhall Street, London E.C.) which appeared in "The Engineer" for 1st September 1876, and kindly supplied by Ralph Martin. According to D.L. Bradley in "Locomotives of the London and South Western Railway Part 1" (RCTS, 1965), the locos operating on the Southampton Dock Company's railway in 1876, which included two 0‑4‑0 saddle tanks by Shanks (SIR BEVIS and ASCUPART, both built in 1872), had a condensing system fitted. It seems likely that this apparatus, whereby exhaust steam passed back to the tank from the cylinders, had been fitted to SIR BEVIS and ASCUPART by Shanks: in 1876 the LSWR ordered a condenser fitted 0‑4‑0 saddle tank from Shanks for working the ferry traffic between the Royal Pier, Southampton, and Town station. Named SOUTHAMPTON (Shanks 9 of 1876), it cost £1,025, had 10¼in by 20in cylinders and 3ft 0in diameter wheels on a 5ft 6in wheelbase. Weight in working order was 18 tons 7½ cwt. Later in the same year a second engine (Shanks 11 of 1877) was ordered to supplement SOUTHAMPTON. This carried the name COWES and was delivered by sea to Southampton in November 1877 aboard the small steam vessel "Alice Potter". Both these locomotives are said to have been supplied with square section tanks as depicted in the photograph of COWES reproduced here. A third Shanks 0‑4‑0 saddle tank (12 of 1879), RITZEBUTTEL, was obtained second hand by the LSWR in December 1879 after its return from Germany (with three similar locomotives) following the completion of the Cuxhaven Harbour contract by a contractor unknown. RITZEBUTTEL was slightly smaller than SOUTHAMPTON and COWES, having 10in by 20in cylinders and a working weight of 17 tons 12¾ cwts. Despite the fitted cab - the roof of which looks rather makeshift - RITZEBUTTEL closely resembles the Shanks locomotive depicted in the advertisement. Rather strangely, all three of the LSWR's Shanks were initially maintained by the Southampton Dock Department and were not allocated running numbers until 1898: prior to this they were not regarded as part of the Company's general stock.