There was a time when every ground-breaking or record-breaking feat by a new-type locomotive would see the footplate crew, designer and the machine itself feted as heroes.\nNames such as City of Truro, Mallard and arguably the most famous of them all, Flying Scotsman, were known in every household up and down the country and provided a source of ready inspiration to generations. These, and others, were the locomotives that shaped the modern world.\nIn Legendary Locomotives, author Robin Jones selects a line-up of the world’s very finest engines – those locomotives that stand head and shoulders above the rest – and explains why they can now truly be regarded as legends.\nAmong the engines featured are the Stourbridge Lion, the fabulous Fairlies, Royal Scot, Stepney, Clun Castle, Tornado and more.

Legendary Locomotives: Steam that inspires the world

Jones, Robin

Reference

Gresley

Darlington

Webb, Jonathan

Heritage Diesel and Electric Locomotives

Engineering & Transportation

Coward, Andy

Transportation

Diesel Dawn Part 2: Swindon Warships

Reeves, George

Diesel Dawn Part 3: North British Warships

Diesel Dawn Part 4: First Generation DMUs - A Pictorial Observation

Diesel Dawn Part 5: Chasing Diesels in the Last Century

No 1472 was the third of a class of steam locomotives that was eventually to number 79 engines, and did not originally even carry a name. The Great Northern Railway A1 4-6-2 though, was the biggest express steam engine ever to have been seen in Britain at the time. It was chosen to be displayed at a major exhibition at Wembley in 1924, and for this it was given the name Flying Scotsman. It hauled the London & North Eastern Railway's first King's Cross-to-Edinburgh nonstop express in 1928. It was the first steam engine in the world to officially break the 100mph barrier. Flying Scotsman has now become the one steam engine in the world of which everyone knows the name, and which most people would even recognise. It was briefly the only main line steam engine running in the whole of Britain, and it has travelled across the Atlantic and across America. It has circumnavigated the globe, steamed across Australia, broken the record for a nonstop run with steam (again), and been sold for easily the highest price ever paid for a steam engine.In 2004, its ongoing 40 years of fame finally earned it a place in the National Railway Museum collection and, after an unprecedented fundraising campaign and a National Heritage Memorial Fund grant, the museum was able to clear the enormous debts of the engine's then owning company and acquire Flying Scotsman for the nation, and for a British public which clearly holds the engines in high esteem. If it had not acquired fame, largely as a result of its name, in the 1920s and 1930s, then maybe Alan Pegler would not have had the enthusiasm to purchase it in 1963. If it had been scrapped, what would then have become Britain's most famous steam engine? And now it's back. No-one expected it to take ten years of toil, but the National Railway Museum finally has an engine to be proud of. This book tells the story of the legend that is Flying Scotsman - the ultimate in British express steam design elegance.

Flying Scotsman: The Worlds Most Famous Steam Locomotive

History

Sharpe, Brian

Europe

Described as the most hated civil servant in Britain, it was half a century ago that Dr Richard Beeching was appointed as chairman of British Railways with one key directive - to cut the soaring losses. The 1950s had seen the start of a mass shift from public to private transport, as lorries, cars, buses and motorbikes replaced trains as Britain's most popular means of travel.So often pilloried by the press and public for closing numerous picturesque and romantic country branch lines, leaving even many large towns cut off from the railway network, Beeching might also be seen as merely streamlining a process that was already under way. Back in the early Sixties, there were many who thought that not only were the days of steam locomotives numbered, but those of railways too, as mankind, leaping towards the first lunar landings, looked toward hovercraft and hovertrains as the transport of the future.Against the dynamic background of the greatest decade of change of the 20th century, Heritage Railway editor Robin Jones looks back at the forces that were shaping the railway's fortunes, the Beeching Axe, its critics, aftermath and its repercussions today. Was Dr Beeching the villain of popular legend - or was he a hero who made Britain's railways into a slimmer, leaner machine far more capable of tackling the challenges of the future? You decide!

Beeching - The Definitive Guide: A Complete History of the Sixties Railway Closures

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

Engineering genius Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Great Western Railway was not only bigger, wider and faster than any other of its day, but linked London to New York via his great steamships from Bristol. His unique broad gauge 'super railway' also connected Paddington to Plymouth and Penzance, and for decades was one of the wonders of the world. More than two centuries on, many of his historic structures along the route have been given listed building protection so future generations can admire and enjoy them. This book looks at the history of the railway from London to Bristol and Brunel's Great Western legacy that was to lead the company to even dizzier heights.

Brunel's Big Railway: Creation of the Great Western Railway

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