This book follows on from the author’s book on the Princess Coronation pacific locomotives from their construction in 1937 to their operation in 1956. It picks up from the story in 1957 with their operation and performance on the ‘Caledonian’, ‘Royal Scot’ and ‘Midday Scot’ accelerated services of the late 1950s, their continuing heavy work as dieselization of the West Coast mainline is implemented and the sudden withdrawal of the remaining examples at the end of the 1964 summer timetable. Included are the author’s personal experiences and photographs and the descriptions by three Crewe men who fired these engines on the heavy overnight Crewe – Perth sleeper services in the late 1950s, two of whom, Les Jackson and Bill Andrew, drove 6229 and 6233 in the preservation era. As well as their stories of their experiences in BR days, they describe runs with the preserved locomotives and have included photographs from their personal collections. Crewe Works fitter, Keith Collier includes his experiences of their maintenance and the author in conclusion compares them with the finest steam locomotives of France, Germany and the USA.

This book is a comprehensive history of all the 0-6-0 tender locomotives built by the Great Western Railway or by railways absorbed by the GWR from the very earliest broad gauge engines designed by Daniel Gooch to the Collett 2251 class of the 1930s some of which were still under construction at nationalisation. It includes the Joseph Armstrong ‘Standard Goods’ and the famous Dean Goods, many of which served overseas in the two world wars. The text of 40,000 words describes the design, construction and operation of eight GW and five ‘Absorbed’ broad gauge classes, and thirteen GW and thirteen ‘Absorbed’ standard gauge classes. The book has over 250 black and white and 30 color photos, weight diagrams and drawings.

This first volume on the LNER 4-4-0 locomotives describes the design, construction, history, operation and performance of the Great Northern, Great Central and Great Eastern examples, classified by the LNER at the Grouping as classes, D1 - D4, D5 - D12 and D13 - D16 respectively. It covers from their emergence in the late nineteenth century to their demise in the mid or late 1950s and their performance at their peak operation times, mainly in the inter-war years of LNER ownership. It also includes the former Midland & Great Northern Railway engines that were later absorbed by the LNER as classes D52 - D54.

This book covers the design, construction, operation and performance of Sir William Stanier’s masterpiece, the Princess Coronation pacific locomotives, better known as the ‘Duchesses’. Included are pen portraits of the LMS engineers, a chapter on the express locomotives of the early LMS period that preceded their introduction and the internal rivalries and politics that Stanier was brought in to resolve. Chapters and photographs cover the streamline era, the war years and aftermath, the early years of nationalization including the 1948 locomotive exchanges and the recovery of performance in the mid-1950s. The author includes some of his own experiences and photographs. The book includes 200 photographs including a few in color from the LMS era, and an appendix with weight diagrams, and statistics of the locomotive construction and withdrawal, names, liveries, allocations and mileages.

The book investigates the vast number of locomotives that came to the London Midland Region in 1948 at Nationalisation. This is a class by class survey with over 200 illustrations, covering all the top link and freight classes, also looking at the smaller types of locomotive, operating on branch lines and doing more humble tasks. The author explores what happened to them and also looks at those that eventually made their way into preservation.

The Duchesses tells the story of the â??Princess Coronationâ?? class of locomotives -the streamlined embodiments of raw, bulked-up muscle and formidable power that any enthusiast will tell you were the finest steam engines in Britain. Conceived of by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway to rival the LNERâ??s illustrious â??A4 Pacificsâ??, these trains heralded in the last golden age of steam. Designed by the great William Stanier, theirs is a story of grand beginnings, a slow trajectory of decline and a recent, celebrated rebirth. Today, there are two â??Duchessesâ?? still in existence: Duchess of Hamilton and Duchess of Sutherland are now restored to their original streamlined appearance. As The Duchessesâ?? beautiful cover illustration suggests, these Coronation locomotives were beautiful to behold; truly majestic feats of engineering. Andrew Rodenâ??s book tells the story of their time in British Railways service; the classâ?? decommissioning in the 1960s; the extraordinary saga of two trainsâ?? unlikely preservation by Billy Butlin at his holiday camps; and their eventual return to steam on the main line. The Duchesses completes a trilogy of railway books from Aurum, joining Mallard - the story of the worldâ??s fastest steam locomotive - and Flying Scotsman â??that of the worldâ??s most famous.

The railroad photographer presents original images from the steam era across all the former British Railways regions. As a young photographer in the 1960s, David Knapman was captivated by the drama and grandeur of steam locomotives. In this beautiful collection from his extensive body of work, he shares a thrilling journey through British Railways many lines. Originally from the Southern Region, Knapman later lived on the former Great Eastern Railway in Essex. He travelled to London to photograph steam traction at most of the London Terminus stations, as well as other locations in the London and home counties area, before venturing further afield across Britain.

David Maidment has unravelled the complex history of the Johnson, Deeley and Fowler 4-4-0 locomotives of the Midland Railway and its LMS successor, covering their design, construction, operation and performance in this book with over 400 black and white photographs. It recounts their working on the Midland main lines from St Pancras to Derby, Manchester, Leeds and Carlisle, the latter via the celebrated Settle & Carlisle line, and the later work of the Fowler LMS engines on the West Coast main line. The book also describes the history of the Midland 4-4-0s built for the Somerset & Dorset and Midland & Great Northern Railways. The book covers the period from the first Midland 4-4-0 built in 1876 to the last LMS 2P withdrawn in 1962 and includes performance logs, weight diagrams and dimensions and statistical details of each locomotive.

It is possible that in the history of British steam locomotives no class of engine was ever more universally popular than the Stanier 5MT 4-6-0 class, which were generally referred to as Black Fives. This informative book includes numerous images of the class at work, many of which are published for the first time.Introduced by the London Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS) in 1934 the building of the 842-strong class was shared between the locomotive works at Crewe, Horwich and Derby and also by the private builders Armstrong Whitworth Ltd. and Vulcan Foundry Ltd. With the exception of a pause in production during the war time years Black Five locomotives continued to be built until May 1951, when the last example was out-shopped from BR Horwich Works. Only four examples of the class were named, but a fifth locomotive was allocated a name which it reportedly never carried.They were often referred to as the finest mixed-traffic locomotives ever to run in Britain. William Arthur Stanier joined the LMS in 1932 having previously served the Great Western Railway (GWR) at Swindon Works, doubtless his LMS 2-cylinder tapered boiler Class 5 4-6-0 design reflected his Swindon experiences.This highly efficient and reliable general-purpose design (in several variants) could generally be seen at work over all of the former LMS network, from Thurso in the north of Scotland to Bournemouth (Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway) in the south of England. They became the ultimate go everywhere steam locomotives, working all manner of trains from slow goods to express passenger services.In 1967 just prior to the end of steam, British Railways remarkably listed 151 Stanier Black Fives as serviceable locomotives. A total of 18 Stanier Black Five locomotives survived into preservation, with the majority of those having been returned to steam.