£9.99

THE ALL NEW EDITION - SUMMER 2011

AVAILABLE ONLY FROM THE PUBLISHER

The 1960s was the great decade of change on our country's railways. At the beginning it was a steam railway through and through; by the end steam had completely disappeared, swept away by a tide of diesels and electrics. The railway that we know today had come into being and the old noisy, slow, smoky one that was somehow altogether more enchanting, had gone forever. This ALL NEW edition of THE STEAMING SIXTIES chronicles this last great decade, played out against a backdrop of the Beatles, winning the world cup, the mini and the end of Empire. This is what it looked like, in glorious colour; the smoke, the steam, the sounds almost...
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£19.95

By PHILIP E. RUNDLE M.B.E., M.Inst. T.A.

Following the interest shown in his first book, Laira Fireman, it was put to Phil that a second might be of interest, broadening the scope across Cornwall, a county so dear to his heart. In Tales from the Clay Country, he has attempted to portray the work of the Great Western in Cornwall and in particular the steam sheds at St Blazey, Truro and Penzance. After a while it seemed natural to include the Southern men and their engines at Wadebridge, on the North Cornwall line, to make this an account of Cornish Sheds.

Hardback 156 pages

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£11.95

BY JOHN JENNISON

The Warships were amongst the most controversial of the early BR diesel classes; the WR management had to fight tooth and nail to get them built in the first place and they were continually attacked by the diesel-electric proponents until they were taken out of service prematurely in the early 1970s under the guise of standardisation. They carried the standard BR green livery with a grey horizontal lining band, enhanced from 1962 by the addition of small yellow warning panels on the nose-end. Almost half were repainted during1965/6 in the maroon which had been adopted for their Western contemporaries, before the majority were given BR's Corporate blue livery which it has to be said did nothing to improve their appearance, even though it was not dissimilar to the colour originally recommended but subsequently rejected in 1959. The Warships became Class 42/43 under TOPS but new numbers were not applied because they were pencilled in for early withdrawal under the National Traction Plan. There were only a few noticeable changes over the fourteen years the locomotives were in service. Those built without train indicator panels had them added, the multiple working equipment was taken off and restored, and there were minor changes on the nose-ends of some locomotives. The Warships were originally employed primarily on the Western Region Paddington-Bristol and West of England services, venturing onto the North-West line up to Crewe between 1962 and 1964. They took over the former SR Waterloo-Exeter trains in 1964 where they held sway until October 1971. In 1967 the North British built locomotives were tried on the Paddington-Birmingham passenger services but after numerous failures they were quickly removed from this work, although they did take over the Worcester/Hereford services which they worked until 1971. The class was ousted from much of their principal WR express work in the mid-1960s, but they did stage a brief comeback in 1968 when pairs of Warships were employed on the accelerated services to the West of England. Over their last few years they were to be found increasingly on freight and secondary workings before the final survivors succumbed in late-1972. Two D800s escaped the cutters torch and although neither has been on the mainline they have both appeared at many preserved railways and open days over the years.
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£11.95

BY MICHAEL POULTER

Enthusiasts Club and the Birmingham Locomotive Club-Industrial Locomotive Information Section fuelled the explorations. Other locations rapidly followed in the same year. The enchantment of visits to the Millwall and Royal Docks, Dagenham Dock, Beckton and Purfleet spread to Barrington and Wissington, the ironstone country of the East Midlands and the Lancashire Coalfield. In the ensuing years most corners of the United Kingdom were covered. It was in 1960 that I switched from black and white film to colour. However I later returned to pursue the craft of using black and white alongside colour film. London has a particular appeal as my city of birth. In the sixties the capital was still affectionately known as 'The Smoke' and with good reason. Amidst the close knit housing of East London; gas works, power stations, chemical and tanning works still gave freely of their toxic vapours. Most of the industry was concentrated along the Thames which still provided an economic means of transport despite the advent of railways. Confluent with the Thames are the Medway and the Lea whose banks were also home to heavy industry. Taking the Docklands Light Railway through a panorama of familiar names like Custom House and Gallions Reach it was hard to recognize remnants of the past. The dismal marshes at Beckton were a reminder that this terrain was originally purchased for the sprawl of Beckton Gas Works. Nowadays with the countrywide shrinkage of sites boasting industrial locomotives there is only a sprinkling to be found in Greater London. Nevertheless, on a visit to Ford's of Dagenham in August, 2009 it was heartening to enjoy their diesel locomotives still bedecked with the Ford logo and royal blue livery reminiscent of steam days. The focus of the book is on the old County of London and the Home Counties with an excursion into Hampshire and a cross border visit into Cambridgeshire from Hertfordshire.
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£23.95

By IAN SIXSMITH

When asked by our esteemed publishers for help in putting together a tome on the LMS Black 5s in the Book Of series the first question to be answered was, how many volumes? Surely even the mighty Irwell machine would struggle to cope with a thousand pager! After much discussion over sausage sandwiches and pints we came up with the answer - five. So, this Part 1 covers the 1934 batch from Vulcan Foundry and the 1935 engines from Crewe and Part 2 the similar 1935 Vulcan Foundry and Armstrong Whitworth locomotives. Part 3 will describe the 'Mark 2' 1936 Armstrong Whitworth locomotives and will sweep up the remaining pre-war engines. Part 4 will deal with the war-time and immediate post-war LMS batches leaving part 5 with the Caprottis and the final LMS and BR-built examples. As we will discover, the Black 5s were not all the same - far from it - and I trust the reader will follow through the story in the approximate chronological sequence which seemed at the time to make sense. The books therefore are arranged by the order in which the locomotives were introduced, with an added twist that, particularly in matters such as boilers and tenders, there is a certain amount of back and forward cross-referencing. In the belief that if you buy one book you will surely need the others to complete the set, some details are covered in more depth in the earlier books and only summarised in the later parts.
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£28.95

RICHARD DERRY with Ian Sixsmith

Second Edition; greatly upgraded and expanded including new sixteen page colour section

Scarcely can a railway board have entered on such a time of frustrating maintenance work, disappointing performance, lows mixed with thrilling highs, uncertainty, expense and worry with such an innocuous phrase - 'Ten New Main Line Locomotives'. They were two sides of a coin, the Merchant Navy Pacifics - love 'em, hate 'em, scorn versus adulation; seldom could the phrases 'brilliant steaming' be conjoined so often with 'heavy maintenance', or the words 'exhilarating performance' with 'caught fire'*.

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£11.95

3. The 57XX engines: 57XX, 67XX, 77XX

Being a part of the Irwell Press 'The Book of the Pannier Tanks'

Intended to Make Up into a Set as a Volume in the Famous 'Book

Of' Series

No.1 94XX

No.2 57XX (36XX, 37XX, 46XX)

No.3 57XX (57XX, 67XX, 77XX)

No.4 57XX (77XX, 96XX, 97XX) expected early-2012

No.5 16XX

No.6 1366, 15XX (expected early 2012)

No.7 54XX, 64XX, 74XX (expected mid 2012)

The vast army of modern (post Grouping) pannier tanks is thus

dealt with over several volumes in a highly collectable series.

Paperback 56 pages

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