In this volume, Eric Sawford uses a selection of photographs to tell the story of the last days of steam power on the Eastern Region. His pictures show that, while steam locomotives were not withdrawn from the Eastern Region until the mid 1960s, the 1950s was their swan song. The author's photographs document the range of motive power that could be seen on the track in that era. Locomotives are depicted in action and at rest, on the express routes, shunting or being repaired. Also recorded are neglected locomotives during their declining years, when they were used on secondary duties or were laid up before being scrapped.
China was the last country in the world to build steam locomotives. The final main line engines emerged from Datong workshops in December 1988 and production of steam locomotives for industrial use continued until 1999. The final few steam locomotives were withdrawn from service in 2003, making China the last country to use steam on its main lines. Total eradication of China's steam programme is set to coincide with the Olympic games in 2008. When this happens, it will be the end of the last mecca for fans of real steam. This is a photo essay detailing the end of this era.
Late in 1964 the author made a career change from the Midland Region railway clerical grades, to the Eastern Region Motive Power Department at King's Cross, initially as a locomotive cleaner. This was the realization of an ambition held for some ten years and by the end of December 1964, he became eligible for second man duties. On 28 December 1964, he was second man on a return trip to Peterborough, and determined to keep a record of the run; locomotive employed, the driver he accompanied, the rostered diagram and the actual circumstances of the diagram. Norman duly recorded this shift, along with all shifts worked during his employment as second man.Norman realized that such a record would be of great interest to both railway enthusiasts and employees, past and present. Especially those who worked on the southern section of the East Coast Main Line or those with a special interest in the railways of the 1960s a formative period of railway modernization when 150 years of steam-powered railway locomotion gave way to more modern means of motive power. This book will use Norman's records of 1964-68 as a basis for an account in which he will show the slow and difficult transition of Britains railway from its traditional steam-powered world into the modern world of diesel and electric traction.Norman's work as second man took him to places and railway installations in North London that no longer exist, and which have taken their place in railway history, and sometimes even within the broader fabric of the history of London, and of England itself. Through the medium of Norman's records of 1960's railway working, he looks back and rediscovers these forgotten places and so contrasts nineteenth-century railways and industrial history with operating practices on todays modern British railways.
In the 1950s and 1960s south Lancashire and Cheshire was criss-crossed by a web of railway lines, servicing the various needs of local industries. The region was a haven for railway enthusiasts who pursued the hundreds of steam workhorses based at British Railways depots in 'chemical towns' such as Warrington, Widnes, Wigan and Sutton Oak, besides Southport and Northwich. While these facilities appeared less glamorous than larger counterparts in Liverpool or Manchester, the stories of the engines, trains and the men who were based at the depots in these towns was no less fascinating. Shed Side in South Lancashire and Cheshireprovides a fascinating portrait of the daily operations of the freight and passenger trains of the region during the final decade of Britain's steam era. It evokes a period of grimy, metal-clattering, smoke-filled industry, and of an era forever etched in our industrial heritage.
