At the beginning of 1967 the writing was clearly on the wall for Southern Steam, with the intention of eliminating it altogether on the 18th June of that year. From the 2nd January, with the Brush type 4s working many main line trains including the Bournemouth Belle, steam was reduced to thirteen departures from Waterloo, three of which were in the early hours.From the 3rd April this was further reduced to just five day and three night time departures. However, by this time it was realized that due to late delivery of the new electric stock, the deadline for the demise of steam was put back to the 9th July and an interim timetable introduced from 12th June.Using information gathered from many sources, Countdown to Extinction chronicles the events of 1967, with the final five weeks in detail, including events that formed the background to the time.
An Indian Summer of Steam' is the second volume of David Maidment's 'railway' autobiography, following his first book 'A Privileged Journey.' David was a railway enthusiast who made the hobby his career. After management training on the Western Region, between 1961 and 1964, he became a stationmaster in a Welsh Valley, an Area Manager on the Cardiff Swansea main line and radiating valleys, the South Wales Train Planning Officer, the Head of Productivity Services for the Western Region and subsequently the British Railways Board, before four years from 1982 as Chief Operating Manager of the London Midland Region, the BRB's first Quality & Reliability Manager in 1986, and finally British Rail's Head of Safety Policy after the Clapham Junction train accident, until privatisation. This experience led to a number of years as an international railway safety consultant, and, as a result of an encounter on an Indian railway station during a business trip abroad, to found the 'Railway Children' charity to support street children living on the rail and bus stations of India, East Africa and the UK, described in 2012 by an officer of the United Nations Human Rights Commission as the largest charity in the world working exclusively for street children. All this is the background to the descriptions the author gives of the last years of steam and his many journeys and experiences during his training in South Wales and the South West, his travels all over BR from 1962 until the end of steam in 1968, his search for steam in France, East and West Germany and China and the steam specials in Britain, France, Germany and China after the demise of regular steam working. The book includes over 100 black and white and 100 colour photos, most taken by the author during his travels, and nearly forty pages of logs of locomotive performance in Britain and the continent. All royalties from the book are being donated by the author to the charity he founded, a brief description of which is included in the last chapter of the book.
The disappearance of steam from Britain's main-line railways marked the end of an era of British rail travel. Here Andrew Britton remembers the last steam main line from London, linking Waterloo to Weymouth via Basingstoke, Winchester, Southampton and Bournemouth, from its post-war presence right to the end of steam travel in 1967.This informative guide details the route, complete with gradient profiles and maps, as well as exploring the rich history of the line and the many features of interest and beauty to be seen from the carriage window. Andrew Britton's nostalgic and personal take on this much loved line evokes the sights and sounds of the steam era: historic engines, the stations they visited and the folk who worked them are brought to life in vivid detail.Enhanced by previously unpublished illustrations, as well as unique artefacts from the author's unparalleled collection, this is an edition no railway enthusiast or heritage traveller should be without.
The disappearance of the steam locomotive in the land of its birth touched the hearts of millions, but when the government announced the Modernisation Plan for Britain's railways in 1955, under which steam was to be phased out in favour of diesel and electric traction, few people took it seriously. Steam locomotives were an integral part of our daily lives and had been for almost one and a half centuries. Furthermore, they were still being built in large numbers. It was popularly believed that they would see the century out and probably well beyond that. But the reality was that by 1968 Ð a mere thirteen years after the Modernisation Plan Ð steam traction had disappeared from Britain's main line railways. It was harrowing to witness the breaking up of engines, which were the icons of their day, capable of working long-distance inter-city expresses weighing 400 tons on schedules faster than a mile a minute. Top speeds of 100mph were not unknown. This book chronicles the last few years as scrap yards all over Britain went into overtime, cutting up thousands of locomotives and releasing a bounty of more than a million tons of scrap whilst the engines, which remained in service, were a shadow of their former selves; filthy, wheezing and clanking their way to an ignominious end. The pictures in this book are augmented by essays written by Colin Garratt at the time. Although steam disappeared from the main line network it survives in everÐdwindling numbers on industrial systems such as collieries, ironstone mines, power stations, shipyards, sugar factories, paper mills and docks. In such environments steam traction eked out a further decade and during this time many of the industrial locations closed rendering the locomotives redundant. The British steam locomotive was born amid the coalfields and was destined to die there one and three quarter centuries later.
This book, covering the final years of steam on Britain’s railways, presents a wonderful array of over 200 color photographs, many of them previously unpublished. All the imagery is reproduced from original transparencies that have remained carefully preserved away from daylight since the day they were taken, so the original vividness of color remains – a rare quality. This book will delight today’s railway enthusiasts who are looking for new material.
The photographs chosen for this book, published for the first time, represent the traction Dorset has enjoyed over the years since the end of steam in 1967, and the landscape that they pass through.
A fascinating tale of a young school boy's exploits in his quest to spot every steam locomotive in the UK during the 1950s & 1960s, until steam finished on British Railways on 4th August 1968. at the time I lived in North Hertfordshire, so my trainspotting days began mainly at Hitchin on the ECML. I later moved to Guildford and carried on from there. I was fortunate in that I recorded virtually all my activities and furthermore have retained those records to this day. In those days before computers and mobile phones Trainspotting was one of the most popular hobbies in the country. My travels covered virtually the whole of the UK over a 10 year period. During that time along with my friends we had lots of interesting and sometimes amusing incidents; such as the Castleford 'Snow' occurrence; contretemps with a herd of Bullocks; run-ins with the law and shed foremen; sleeping rough on many occasions; a scary walk over Crumlin viaduct; our coach catching fire on the M1; plus many more. we visited locomotive sheds over 600 times during which I recorded in excess of 21,000 engines! We travelled by any means available; coach; bus; mini-bus; bicycle; car; motorbike; train; ferry; and a lot of hitchhiking! The latter including one such ride on a 9F which took me right into the shed I was about to bunk! We would take every opportunity to be by our beloved steam engines, daily on the way to & from school, then again in the evenings and every 2-3 weeks off an a tour somewhere in the UK some of these lasted 4 -5 days, often with rather dubious overnight accommodation! these tours were to all parts of the UK, from South Wales to Aberdeen, the Northwest, Northeast, Midlands, North Wales, south to Brighton, Southampton, Isle of Wight, West country and dozens of other locations The book has full colour card covers, is A4 portrait style of 185 pages and over 100 B & W photos. At the end of the text are two appendices, the first lists every shed visited and the relevant dates, the second lists in chronological order every locomotive seen, its shed and date. Barrie