British Steam Br Standard Locomotives

A history of post second world war steam locomotive design and construction in Great Britain, the perfect gift for railroad history buffs. After WWII the existing railway companies were all put into the control of the newly formed British Transport Commission and that government organization spawned British Railways, which came into being on January 1st 1948. The railway infrastructure had suffered badly during the war years and most of the steam locomotives were “tired” and badly maintained and or life expired. Although the management of British Railways was already planning to replace steam power with diesel and electric engines, they still decided to build more steam locomotives as a stop gap. Some 999 Standard locomotives were built in twelve classes ranging from super powerful express and freight engines to suburban tank locomotives. The locomotives were mainly in good order when the directive came in 1968 to end steam, some trains were only eight years old. There still exists a fleet of forty-six preserved Standards of which 75% are in working order in and around the UKs preserved railways, furthermore three new build standard locomotives are proposed. Steam fans who were around in the 1960s all remember the “Standards.”

An exhaustive and monumental listing of every steam locomotive operated by British Railways from Nationalisation until the end of steam in 1968, now brought completely up to date in a second edition.

This book represents the final stage in the Society's quest to present the complete story of British locomotive standardisation to culminate in the twelve BR Standard designs that totalled 999 engines. This final publication covers a number of topics and using papers from the Mr. R. Bond and Mr. G. Dow collections the book asks whether the Standard project was required and what happened to it, how the locomotive works of the UK handled repairs and developments of various locomotive types including comparison of Standards with existing designs. There are sections on the naming policy adopted in regard to specifically Britannias, how the shed and shed code system had developed but in particular with reference to dealing with the Standard classes. A further lengthy section deals with Locomotive Performance and shows various comparisons with other locomotive types. More repair tables have been provided following feedback from earlier volumes and inevitably this book provides a list of amendments and correction to the previous four volumes. In a major departure for the society this book features all colour photographs of Standard locomotives in traffic, many not seen in print before.This volume represents the comprehensive conclusion to the series and draws a line under many questions asked about the Standards.

This book by Paul Chancellor presents the Standards' design history and for each of the Britannia, Duke and Clan classes their complete construction, modification, allocation and operating history.

John Walford and Paul Harrison present the complete story of the powerful and successful Class 9Fs. Enthusiasts will find this book a delight as the engines were allocated to more than 60 depots and worked nationwide. Full details of each engine's construction, allocation and use, modification and disposal and a chapter on the 9 preserved engines is included .