| RITISH RAILWAYS IN COLOUR is an exciting, and g brand new series of modestly-priced railway books from Trans-Pennine & Nostalgia Road. Each book is packed with period colour photographs taken between 1948 and 1968, and supplemented with highly informative text. These books are designed to tell the history of the nationalised British Railways in the era of steam and record the golden age of railway travel. British Railways In Colour forms part of an expanding series, and is accompanied by a range of other transport history titles, including the highly acclaimed Nostalgia Road series. Between 1956 and 1968 British Railways took over 16,000 steam locomotives out of service as it tried to 'modernise' its system. At first the cull was confined to older engines, and types like the many designs of 4-4-Os. These were considered redundant, given the fact that 999 new British Railway 'standard' locomotives were being built, along with pilot classes of diesel and electric locomotives. Local passenger turns were also being transferred from steam haulage to a fleet of diesel or electric multiple units, and a new era for the railways had begun. However British Railway's mad rush into modernisation was being made when many of the new forms of traction were still unproven. Parts of the country, like East Anglia and the North of Scotland were 'steam free' so even the modern BR Standards were considered surplus to requirements. Although, at under ten years old, nobody was going to scrap these 'new' engines, they were often shuffled around from depot to depot seeking a new home. By 1968 steam was confined to just the North West of England, and by August that year it was gone. This book, and Volume 8 that follows, tells in remarkable colour how the steam fleet was put in store and then scrapped in the period concerned. Written by Professor Alan Earnshaw the author of the well known Steam For Scrap story it forms a fascinating, if not truly tragic story. No Contents Listing Published, See Description Continent: Europe
Country: UK |
