Men of Steam

In recent years the importance of the personal element in locomotive design and operation has increasingly come to be seen as very important. No author any longer attempts to compile articles which state that: Mr X built a class of 6’ 4-4-0s… because, in some cases, Wainwright comes immediately to mind, he had little part in their design. Even the great Stanier relied on a team of engineers and draughtsman who transformed his outline ideas into detailed designs. This new approach to engineering biography has evoked several book length profiles of loco engineers, and in the magazine Back Track, detailed studies of engineers including information about their design teams, making new and sometimes controversial revisions of long accepted reputations. This book which was originally conceived as a series of articles for Back Track is intended to be brief but tight profiles of some of Britain’s loco engineers, some very well known, some not, examining their work in relation to the points made earlier. Some reassessments, that of Gresley for example will be controversial.