GREAT WESTERN (GWR)

PHIL & OWEN WILLIAMS

ISBN 978-1-911262-27-5 - OUT NOW

The late Tom Williams, photographer and Great Western enthusiast, born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1930, is best known for his extensive black-and-white photographic work, donated to the National Railway Museum in York by his family after his untimely death at the age of forty nine in 1980. His little-known 35mm colour transparency work, however, was retained by his youngest son, Owen and has been under restoration since May 2014 by his eldest son, Phillip. Seen in print for the first time in the books ‘T.E.Williams: The Lost Colour Collection Volumes 1 & 2’  published during 2017, this third volume revisits Tom’s unique colour archive. Although centring on the Western Region of British Railways, around the idyllic Warwickshire and Cotswold countryside, we are also treated to locations as diverse as Bristol, Reading, New Barnet, Twyford, Eastleigh and Crew, to name but a few. We also have a chapter dedicated to the challenging section of main line between Newton Abbot and Plymouth. We believe that this volume will sit proudly, not just on any discerning steam enthusiast’s bookshelf, but with its large and detailed colour plates will also provide invaluable information for any serious railway modeller.

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By JOHN JENNISON

ISBN 978-1-911262-20-6

The Kings were the final development of the Churchward four-cylinder 4-6-0, stretched to the very limits of the loading gauge. Many people have asked why this, the premier Great Western Railway express passenger class, had not been covered in the ‘Book of’ series when books had been devoted to the humble pannier tanks and the ‘lesser’ 4-6-0 classes. The answer lies partly in the mists of time - in the previous millennium when Irwell Press published Peto’s Register on the Kings in 1995. Although it has stood the test of time quite well, it was thought the material should be dusted down, refurbished and re-invigorated with a generous helping of new pictures to take its rightful place at the head of the GWR ‘Books of’. The Chairman of the Great Western wanted the most powerful express engines in the country, and the successors to the Castle were designed to achieve this. His publicity department, never shy of trumpeting the company to the outside world, took full advantage of its new engines and pressed its claim, both at home and to the world via a trip to the USA. They even produced a book titled The ‘King’ of Railway Locomotives and details taken from several of its chapters have been included as a fascinating contemporary account of the of the building of the engines. As befits their status, the Kings attracted much attention from the enthusiast community from first to last, and many column inches have been devoted to their workings in both contemporary and historical journals and magazines. In particular, the details of pre- and post-war diagrams compiled for the Great Western Railway Journal have been included in the chapter on operations.

By Phillip and Owen Williams

The late Tom Williams, Great Western enthusiast and photographer born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1930, is best known for his extensive black-and-white photographic work which was donated to the National Railway Museum in York by his family after his untimely death at the age of forty nine in 1980. His little-known 35mm colour transparency work, however, was retained by his youngest son, Owen and is currently under restoration by his eldest son, Phillip. Seen in print for the first time in the book T.E.Williams: The Lost Colour Collection Volume 1 published in March 2017, this second volume dips again into Tom’s unique slide archive to concentrate on the decade 1954 to 1964. It unashamedly centres around the Western Region of British Railways, as this was the photographer’s primary interest, with sections devoted exclusively to the King Class and Swindon Works, but we are also given a taste of the fruits of Tom’s eclectic travels up and down the country, across the regional boundaries. We believe that this volume will sit seamlessly next to the first on any steam enthusiast’s bookshelf and will provide a unique insight into the world of a passionate and talented photographer, who wasn’t afraid to experiment with colour film at a time when most of his peers believed that black-and-white was the only route to successful railway photography.

By ian Sixsmith

0-6-2Ts - Part 1 ISBN978-1-911262-06-0

1. 5600-5699 - Price: £13.95, 56pp

MORE GREAT WESTERN TANK LOCOMOTIVES

The successful Pannier Papers, already reprinted in parts, is a series of seven paperbacks detailing the hordes of GWR 0-6-0 pannier tanks. Lately it was joined by The Prairie Papers, three volumes treating the GWR 2-6-2Ts in similar fashion. Most of the rest of the Great Western’s fleet of tank locos is now dealt with in a similarly comprehensive way, in FOUR volumes,

0-6-2Ts

2-8-0Ts

2-8-2Ts

The 0-6-2 Tank Papers

5600- 5699, 6600-6699

1. 5600-5699

2. 6600-6699

The 2-8-0 Tank Papers

4200, 5200 2-8-0Ts, 4200-5294

The 2-8-2 Tank Papers

7200 2-8-2Ts, 7200-7253

By ian Sixsmith

0-6-2Ts - Part 1 ISBN978-1-911262-06-0

2. 6600-6699 - Price: £12.95, 48pp

MORE GREAT WESTERN TANK LOCOMOTIVES

The successful Pannier Papers, already reprinted in parts, is a series of seven paperbacks detailing the hordes of GWR 0-6-0 pannier tanks. Lately it was joined by The Prairie Papers, three volumes treating the GWR 2-6-2Ts in similar fashion. Most of the rest of the Great Western’s fleet of tank locos is now dealt with in a similarly comprehensive way, in FOUR volumes,

0-6-2Ts

2-8-0Ts

2-8-2Ts

The 0-6-2 Tank Papers

5600- 5699, 6600-6699

1. 5600-5699

2. 6600-6699

The 2-8-0 Tank Papers

4200, 5200 2-8-0Ts, 4200-5294

The 2-8-2 Tank Papers

7200 2-8-2Ts, 7200-7253

By ian Sixsmith

2-8-0Ts - ISBN 978-1-911262-10-7

4200, 5200 2-8-0Ts, 4200-5294 - £14.95, 80pp

MORE GREAT WESTERN TANK LOCOMOTIVES

The successful Pannier Papers, already reprinted in parts, is a series of seven paperbacks detailing the hordes of GWR 0-6-0 pannier tanks. Lately it was joined by The Prairie Papers, three volumes treating the GWR 2-6-2Ts in similar fashion. Most of the rest of the Great Western’s fleet of tank locos is now dealt with in a similarly comprehensive way, in FOUR volumes,

0-6-2Ts

2-8-0Ts

2-8-2Ts

The 0-6-2 Tank Papers

5600- 5699, 6600-6699

1. 5600-5699

2. 6600-6699

The 2-8-0 Tank Papers

4200, 5200 2-8-0Ts, 4200-5294

The 2-8-2 Tank Papers

7200 2-8-2Ts, 7200-7253

By ian Sixsmith

2-8-2Ts - ISBN 978-1-911262-09-1

7200 2-8-2Ts, 7200-7253 - Price: £13.95, 56pp

MORE GREAT WESTERN TANK LOCOMOTIVES

The successful Pannier Papers, already reprinted in parts, is a series of seven paperbacks detailing the hordes of GWR 0-6-0 pannier tanks. Lately it was joined by The Prairie Papers, three volumes treating the GWR 2-6-2Ts in similar fashion. Most of the rest of the Great Western’s fleet of tank locos is now dealt with in a similarly comprehensive way, in FOUR volumes,

0-6-2Ts

2-8-0Ts

2-8-2Ts

The 0-6-2 Tank Papers

5600- 5699, 6600-6699

1. 5600-5699

2. 6600-6699

The 2-8-0 Tank Papers

4200, 5200 2-8-0Ts, 4200-5294

The 2-8-2 Tank Papers

7200 2-8-2Ts, 7200-7253

By Phillip and Owen Williams

The late Tom Williams is best known for his extensive black-and-white photographic work which was donated to the National Railway Museum by his family after his untimely death at the age of forty nine in 1980. This collection comprising almost 12,000 medium format and 35mm negatives has seen publication in countless books and magazines across the world over the intervening decades. His little-known 35mm colour transparency work, however, was retained by his family, remaining largely unseen and unpublished until now. Digitally restored and seen here in print for the first time, this book presents a cross section of these colour images taken between 1954 and 1966. Although most of these photographs show main line steam in action on the Western Region of British Railways, we are also treated to glimpses of rarer and lesser photographed locations, such as the ex-Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway, which was swallowed up by the LMS in the 1920s, eventually falling foul to the Beeching cuts of the 1960s. Tom’s colour slide collection contains arguably some of the finest and most important previously unseen colour images of steam in action to see the light of day for several decades.

PART 4

Modified Halls 6959-6999, 7900-7929

ISBN 978-1-906919-99-3

Latest in the ‘Book Of’ series. This fourth and final volume covers Modified Halls 6959-7929. The usual rich selection of photographs and mass of information – works attention, sheds, tenders and boilers.

Part 3: 6900 to 6958

128 pages, hardback

ISBN 978-1-906919-92-4

Latest in the ‘Book Of’ series and the third of four to detail the Halls. This third volume covers 6900-6958. The usual rich selection of photographs and mass of information, works attention, sheds, tenders and boilers.

Part 2: 5900 to 5999

224 pages, hardback

ISBN 978-1-906919-89-4

Latest in the ‘Book Of’ series and the second of four to detail the Halls. This second volume covers 5900-5999. The usual rich selection of photographs and mass of information, works attention, sheds, tenders and boilers.

By IAN SIXSMITH and Richard Derry

Part 1: 4900 to 4999

224 pages, hardback

ISBN 978-1-906919-84-9

Latest in the ‘Book Of’ series and the first of three to detail the Halls. This first volume covers 4900-4999, from the first Saint conversion, SAINT MARTIN through the earlier Halls built to the early 1930s. The usual rich selection of photographs (including the elusive bombed and withdrawn 4911) and mass of information – works attention, sheds, tenders and boilers.

By Ian Sixsmith

The successful Pannier Papers, already reprinted in parts, is a series of seven paperbacks detailing the hordes of GWR 0-6-0 pannier tanks. Now it is joined by The Prairie Papers, three volumes treating the GWR 2-6-2Ts in similar fashion. The ‘Big Prairies’ are covered in the first two volumes, the ‘Small Prairies’ in the third.

The Prairie Papers No.1 5100, 3150, 5101, 4100s

ISBN 978-1-906919-85-6

80 PAGES

PRICE:-£14.95 OUT NOW

By Ian Sixsmith

The successful Pannier Papers, already reprinted in parts, is a series of seven paperbacks detailing the hordes of GWR 0-6-0 pannier tanks. Now it is joined by The Prairie Papers, three volumes treating the GWR 2-6-2Ts in similar fashion. The ‘Big Prairies’ are covered in the first two volumes, the ‘Small Prairies’ in the third.

The Prairie Papers No.2 6100, 3100, 8100s

ISBN 978-1-906919-86-3

56 PAGES

PRICE:- £13.95 OUT NOW

By Ian Sixsmith

The second rank of Great Western motive power – the mixed traffic engines if you like – was for years made up of the humble mogul, but this began to come to an end with the widespread use of the new Hall 4-6-0s. The Halls were Saints with wheels reduced from 6ft 8½in to 6ft but most proposals on the GWR went back decades and as far back as the turn of the century, years before even the Halls appeared, a version with even smaller wheels had been mooted. In the 1930s Collett decided to use some of the parts of older 2-6-0s, such as wheels, coupling rods and cab steps, in a class of 80 ‘different Halls’ – a new class called the Granges because of their 5ft 8in driving wheel diameter. The Granges and their smaller brethren, the Manors, were announced at the same time, as ‘the engines replacing the 2-6-0s’.

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No. 7

54XX, 64XX, 74XX

By Ian Sixsmith

The daintiest and most specialised of the pannier tank hordes, including some specifically for passenger work. This brings to an end at last The Pannier Papers, the most exhaustive survey of the post-Grouping 0-6-0 tanks of the Great Western. There were more than 1,200 of them, and they’re all here!

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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No. 6 1366, 15XX

By Ian Sixsmith

These two classes of pannier, tiny numerically compared to the others dealt with in the Pannier Papers so far, were both hugely distinctive in their way. One was a barely altered derivative of a design first arrived at in the 1870s, in the days of Francis Trevithick. The other was the most advanced pannier tank ever built; huge and with modern motion and accessibility virtually unheard of on the GWR.

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BY IAN SIXSMITH

This is the second ‘Book Of’ to describe a Great Western class and it is a cause for rejoicing or lamentation, according to taste, that the detail variation within the class is minimal, at least compared to the devilish Castle brew. The Counties were completed in under two years, remarkably quickly for the Great Western, which rather liked to build its engines over generations. So no ‘joggled’ frames, fluted cylinder casings or a mysterious voyage through two, three, four row superheater boilers and occasionally back again. But we hope one or two revelations – the much-prized ‘nuggets’ – have emerged.

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By Derek Phillips

This book depicts steam locomotives at work on the route between Paddington and Weymouth as it used to be in the age of steam before the advent of mass closures of branch lines and stations and before dieselisation. The author became entranced with the railway from his first boyhood ‘skool’ trip from Paddington to the coast and later worked on the footplate at Yeovil engine shed. This is the essential (Great) Western Region of the 1950s; a journey from London to Weymouth with innumerable observations and descriptions along the way, celebrating the classic Victorian seaside holiday town with its boarding houses and donkey rides. So come on the trip, and meet Dick Emery when you get there! You are awful...

Hardback 148 Pages

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By Ian Sixmith, Richard Derry

The 57XX engines: 87XX, 96XX, 97XX

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.5 16XX

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

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

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

dealt with over several volumes in a highly collectable series.

56 Pages, Card cover

REPRINT NOW AVAILABLE!

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

NEW REPRINT AVAILABLE

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

The 57XX engines: 36XX, 37XX, 46XX

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

dealt with over several volumes in a highly collectable series.

PLENTY OF PANNIERS!

Next off the stocks, after No.1 the 94XXs, comes (just to make it interesting):

THE PANNIER PAPERS No.5 - 16XX

The 16XXs were the smallest and prettiest of them all, Swindon's 'lightweight panniers' of 1949.

Publishing and marketing brilliance has resulted in these lovely 16XXs coming BEFORE the more familiar 57XX panniers, which in turn will come LATER THIS YEAR in THREE separate Pannier Papers. Here's the plan:

No.1 94XX

No.2 57XX (36XX, 37XX, 46XX) expected mid-2010

No.3 57XX (57XX, 67XX, 77XX) expected mid-2010

No.4 57XX (77XX, 96XX, 97XX) expected mid-2010

No.5 16XX

No.6 1366, 15XX (expected late 2010)

No.7 54XX, 64XX, 74XX (expected late 2010)

The vast army of modern (post Grouping) pannier tanks is thus dealt with over several volumes in a highly collectable series; a FINAL MODELLING ACCOMPANIMENT is also under preparation:

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By Bob Yate

The area around today’s Telford, and specifically that of Coalbrookdale, is well known as the cradle of the industrial revolution. However, the story goes much further back than Abraham Darby. The Roman settlement of ‘Uscocona’ became that latterly known as Oakengates. The Romans are known to have worked outcrops of coal in this part of East Shropshire, and this mining continued on right through the Middle Ages. Locally, the ‘longwall’ technique of mining was developed, which involved excavating along the lateral face of the coal seam, rather than ‘head first’ into the seam. Such small pits were typically only 60 to 100 feet deep at the start of the industrial revolution, and many of this depth continued, even into the 20th century.

Not surprisingly, such mining activities revealed other minerals for which uses were either initially apparent, or for which the resourcefulness of the miners found a new use. The deposits of ironstone and fireclay were exploited in this way, and thus new products were developed and new markets opened throughout Britain, and eventually exported. As an example, one early blast furnace was opened in Lilleshall village in 1591. Later, and nearby, the well established Coalbrookdale Company built blast furnaces on land leased from Earl Gower at Donnington Wood in 1783.

This area was one of the most heavily industrialised in the country for many decades, and its contribution to the nation’s wealth is often under appreciated. For example, it is recorded that around one quarter of the iron produced in Britain in 1806 came from here.

The Lilleshall Company came to be the largest employer in the region, utilising the local iron, coal and limestone reserves and developing these heavy industries by the application of the accumulated skills in the area, and drawing on new technology from further afield.

REPRINT BY POPULAR DEMAND

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

By Richard Derry

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

Something 'a little less Victorian looking'

The 94XX 0-6-0PTs were designed by F.J. Hawksworth, last Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Western Railway. They eventually came to 210 in number; a further hundred in the 84XX series and the final ten, 3401-3409. Though a pure GW design they were GW engines, just; only the first ten, 9400-9409, were actually constructed at Swindon and were the only ones built in GW days. The remaining two hundred were all built by outside contractors spread over a number of years, 1949-1956.