Ok. One thing that got me thinking is in the first draft of TH, where there is a clear reference to 'policemen on bicycles'. Now, this was removed, while the reference to an 'engine' was not. Why? Surely a reference to a policeman on a bicycle is less anachronistic than a reference to a railway engine.
However.....in the upcoming second volume of The History of the Hobbit we will finally get to read Tolkien's attempted re-write of TH in the style of LotR - will the 'engine' reference be left in?
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