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If you ever had any doubt about the ability of steam engines to instantly go from Full Ahead to Full Astern, take a look at the River Don engine at Kelham Island Museum. It's a 12,000 HP unit, 3 cylinder, each cylinder working at boiler pressure, i.e. no compounding. It was employed rolling armour plate.
In the Mark Williams series "Industrial Revelations" (can't remember which episode) you can see the engine going full ahead to full reverse in rapid succession, as was necessary for rolling the plate.
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