Yes and no but possibly dependent on your edition, mine is the revised one from 1980, page 34 para 3 "At their first general repair in November 1911 and February 1911, nos 753/4 had the lever reversing removed and replaced by the standard Ashford steam system".
This is one of those canards that has arisen, usually as a result of the poor fireman blaming the locomotive for his lack of skills. I had some experience of 323 and 27 in the summers of 1970/1 and a couple of things should be remembered, they are in common with the LBSC terriers, very small engines and it's very easy to over fire with a detrimental impact on the steam pressure. Similarly the injectors cannot be left on as might be the case with a more modern larger locomotive. They won't go anywhere with a boiler full of water. The quality of coal has an undoubted impact, some 50 years plus ago the Bluebel Railway was using Betteshanger coal, which had a high calorific content and at that time was in large lump size, enabling it to be broken up to an ideal size, modern supplies which are much smaller can again choke the fire from adequate air. Finally the cab is just that bit bigger, three in a P is cosy, three in a Terrier is too close for comfort. Despite their supposed lacking, firing one from Sheffield Park to Horsted Keynes and return with just over 100 tons on the drawbar and not running out of water is a challenge, a lot of crews brought up on big standards can't do it. Wainwright might well not have been in the same class as Stroudley, but Ashford was as good a works as any where else in Edwardian Britain, read the late Richard Hardy on Stewarts Lane D1's. A Kentish man supporting the Men of Kent.
Felt pen? I thought he used crayons .......
