Locomotives

  1. East Anglia and the East Coast Railways by Brian Reading

    I was born in 1929 so over the years have witnessed great technical, social, and cultural change. Railway operation and management styles have kept pace with these changes. With my lifelong interest in railway practice, in particular the construction and operation of steam locomotives, it is interesting in times of reflection to ponder on these memories to recall the major...
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  2. Crewe in the Days of BR Blue by Michael Hitchen

    Crewe as everyone knows is a major railway centre and has had its fair share of published works covering the subject, both general and historical studies. I wanted a pictorial study of a particular period, that of the much-maligned British Rail corporate blue, which existed between the late 1960s and mid-1980s. 1588 Crewe Works. (Crewe in the Days of BR...
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  3. Elegance in Engineering by Colin Alexander

    I blame my Dad. He instilled in me a love of the British steam locomotive and a suspicion of its overseas equivalent, with (as he put it) a load of dustbins and plumbing hanging on the outside. It certainly seemed to an impressionable, youthful me that continental locomotives did carry a lot of ugly protuberances which the engineers of the LNER...
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  4. Diesels and Electrics in London and the South East by Malcolm Batten

    London is self-explanatory, but where exactly is the South-East? It all depends on the context. In 1986-8 British Rail decided to regroup the railways from a regional basis to a business-based system. The regional basis had dated from the formation of British Railways in 1948 from the former Great Western Railway, LMS, LNER and Southern Railways. The Eastern, North Eastern...
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  5. The Scottish Rail Scene in the Twenty-First Century by John Jackson

    The date was 9th August 1968, a day I remember well. That was the day I crossed an imaginary line, and my imagination turned to reality. My love affair with the Scottish rail scene had begun. Leaving Carlisle’s Kingmoor yard behind me, my first entry in my beloved spotting notebook was to be at the isolated community of Beattock, around...
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  6. Beyer, Peacock & Company of Manchester by Colin Alexander

    The Quantock Hills have recently reverberated to the distinctive sound of two Maybach MD870 engines, as preserved Beyer, Peacock ‘Hymek’ diesel-hydraulics D7017 and D7018 were reunited in service on the West Somerset Railway. I first fell in love with these stylish machines when another preserved example, D7029, filled Newtondale Gorge in North Yorkshire with her distinctive growl, and more recently...
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  7. Steam in the British Coalfields by Mick Pope

    Trainspotter, a description that has somehow become a term of ridicule, conjuring up an image of some bespectacled nerd who is unable to function in normal society and definitely won’t have any dress sense, wife or girlfriend. Funny how this has come about as an interest in railways in general as the second most popular hobby among men in the...
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  8. Locomotives of the Eastern United States by Christopher Esposito

    When I was asked to put together Locomotives of the Eastern United States for Amberley, I knew it was going to be a challenge. After all, how does one comb through over 10,000 photos of trains and select the best images to present to readers? What lines to pick? What engine models? NS ES44DC 7716 leads 13R over the Potomac...
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  9. Shed Bashing in the 1970s and 1980s by Colin Alexander

    When my mate David, now exiled in France, made me custodian of his collection of railway photos from the early 1980s it sparked the idea of compiling a book recalling our teenage years, misspent bunking BR diesel depots. Unidentified Class 31/1 on 31 July 1982. (Author's collection, Shed Bashing in the 1970s and 1980s, Amberley Publishing) Wishing to include as...
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  10. Survivors of Beeching by John Jackson

    It seems like only yesterday that I was lying on the carpet at my best friend’s house. Dave lived ‘seven doors down’ and had the superior Hornby double 0 gauge model railway layout. As school chums, we spent many a happy hour playing trains there. The view from the train as it approaches St. Ives. (Survivors of Beeching, Amberley Publishing...
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