A Privileged Journey
A Privileged Journey

Author: David Maidment

Publisher: Pen and Sword

Published: 2015-06-30

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 1473859492

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A Privileged Journey, Volume 1 1940–1962 is a personal and individual account of the author' youthful enthusiasm for trains and the travels he undertook in Great Britain and on the European continent as a student and management trainee of British Railways. It is illustrated by over 140 black and white photos, mostly taken by the author himself as a boy and student. The chapters cover the emergence of the young boy's interest in steam locomotives in particular, through his 'trainspotting' days to his numerous journeys in the late 1950s and early 1960s, with many accounts of locomotive performance supported by an extensive appendix of train 'logs'. Some of the chapters are much extended narratives from articles serialised in the UK enthusiast magazine, 'Steam World' over the last decade and are also based on ten hours of verbal interviews recorded by the UK National Railway Museum at York as part of their 'Oral History' archives supported by a UK National Lottery Grant.The second volume, to be published at a later date, covering the period from 1962 to the current time, will describe his continuing interest and records while pursuing his career as stationmaster, area manager, train planner, Regional operating manager and finally Head of Safety before his retirement in 1996 and subsequent career as an international railway safety consultant.

The Twilight of Southern Steam
The Twilight of Southern Steam

Author: Don Benn

Publisher: Casemate Publishers

Published: 2017-06-30

Total Pages: 404

ISBN-13: 1473863082

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This book is first and foremost the story of the enginemen and their steeds which brought the steam era to an end on the Southern. It is therefore primarily about locomotive performance but enlivened by stories about how that was achieved and also about the band of young men who followed the exploits of men and machines, day and night over those last two years. It includes a substantial contribution from an ex-Nine Elms fireman and many anecdotes about the enginemen. The book contains about eighty train running logs plus records of lineside observations, detailed descriptions of the work covered by the locomotives and crews from the various steam motive power depots, copies of the actual duty rosters posted at Nine Elms, together with a unique collection of about 150 black and white and color images taken in the 1965 to 1967 period covered by this book. It is the most comprehensive story of those last few years yet produced, and it is truly The Untold Story, a fine tribute to the enginemen who performed near miracles with their doomed and run-down fleet of locomotives, in the very different world of the mid–1960's railway, unequaled anywhere else in Britain.

Biography of British Train Travel
Biography of British Train Travel

Author: Don Benn

Publisher: Pen and Sword

Published: 2017-05-19

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 1473858445

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Railway Anthology is a collection of mainly previously unpublished articles and short stories, covering a lifelong interest in railways. It spans a wide spectrum over the years, from the early days in Kent in 1960, through the many hours on the line side on the Surrey Hills line and the South Western main line, to the last frantic years of steam on the Southern, and the current steam scene, as well as the privileged and exciting times spent riding on the foot plate of steam locomotives. It majors on the author’s main railway passions of steam locomotives, train running performance, including modern motive power and all matters Southern. Locomotive performance in Europe and a tramway are also included, as is a fascinating minor- and little-visited narrow gauge railway in Southern England, plus heritage traction on the London Underground. The book comprises approximately 350 illustrations, many in color, as well as contemporary timetable extracts and copies of notebook pages, which cover shed visits in Scotland. Fifty train running logs are included, together with some detailed records of days spent by the line sides of railways when steam was still the predominant motive power in parts of the south.

Britain from the Rails
Britain from the Rails

Author: Benedict Le Vay

Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides

Published: 2014-12-01

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 1841629197

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"Including the nation's best-kept-secret railways"--Cover.

The Urie and Maunsell Cylinder 4-6-0s
The Urie and Maunsell Cylinder 4-6-0s

Author: David Maidment

Publisher: Pen and Sword

Published: 2016-12-19

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 1473852536

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This book is one in the Pen & Sword Transport History imprint in the ‘Locomotive Portfolio’ series and covers the family of two-cylinder 4-6-0s designed and built by the Chief Mechanical Engineers of the London & South Western and Southern Railways between 1914 and 1936, which survived well into the era of British Railways. The N15 ‘King Arthur’ class of express passenger engines were the mainstay of the Southern Railway’s passenger business between the two world wars, but both Robert Urie and Richard Maunsell built mixed traffic and freight locomotives of a similar ilk forming a ‘King Arthur’ family of locomotives for all purposes that were simple, robust and long lived. This book describes the conception, design and construction of the N15, H15 and S15 classes and the N15X rebuilds of the LB&SCR ‘Baltic Tanks’ and their operation in traffic before and after the Second World War, until the withdrawal of the last Maunsell 4-6-0 in 1965. The book includes extensive personal recollections of the author, who both saw and travelled on hundreds of trains hauled by many of these engines in the 1950s and ‘60s, and gives a brief summary of those that have been preserved on Britain’s heritage railways. The book is copiously illustrated with over 200 black and white and colour illustrations.