Description:A postcard photo illustrating pannier tank locomotive no.173 belonging to the North Staffordshire Railway Company together with the company badge.
It is a Hookham's 0-6-4 passenger tank engine built at the Stoke-on-Trent Works in 1916. It was renumbered on its incorporation into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923 as number 2044 and was withdrawn from service in 1936. Eight of these New 'C' Class locomotives were built in 1914-15.
John Albert Hookham was the Works Manager at Stoke-on-Trent from 1902. Some sources attribute this design to his predecessor as Locomotive, Carriage & Wagon Superintendent, John Henry Adams who died suddenly in December 1915.
The unused postcard is from the 'Colourmaster International Collector Series' published by Photo Precision Ltd, St Ives, Huntingdon.