Diesel Pioneers - Hardcover

David Clough

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0711030677 ISBN 13: 9780711030671

Publisher: Ian Allan Ltd, 2007

Synopsis

In the history of Britain's railways there are a number of seminal dates. These include, for example the opening in 1825 of the Stockton to Darlington railway, the Grouping of 1923, the creation of British Railways in 1948, the end of main line steam traction in 1968 and of course the passing in 1994 of the act that permitted the privatisation of the railways. Whilst most would agree that these are some of the key dates in the railway age in Britain, there is one further date which should be added to this. That date is 1955, the year in which the BR Modernatisation Plan was approved. It was the Modernisation Plan that envisaged the elimination of main line steam and its replacement by both diesel and electric traction. As a result of the Modernisation Plan, BR ordered a variety of small batches of locomotives from a number of manufacturer's in order to gauge what would be most suitable types for ordering in quantity. This was not the country's first experience of diesel traction. The 'Big Four' had been experimenting with diesel traction before 1948, but in terms of the number of classes developed, both the successful and the failures, the results of 1955 were all important in shaping the railways that existed in the 40 years prior to privatisation. 'Diesel Pioneers' , David Clough examines the various classes of diesel locomotive that emerged as a result of the Modernisation Plan. His survey begins by looking initially at the precursors to the designs that were developed from 1955 onwards, such as the LNER prototype of the 1930s and the first two LMS main line diesels (Nos 10000/1). He then concentrates on the pilot scheme designs that emerged during the late 1950s. Some of these designs, such as the future classes 20 and 31, have proved to be hugely successfully with examples still in service almost 50 years after their introduction. Others, however, proved less so, most notably the Metro-Vick Co-Bo class 23 'Baby Deltics'. Also featured are the various prototype locomotives such as D0260 Lion and D0280 (D1200) Falcon and the test-bed locomotives of classes 37 and 47. Alongside the author's detailed narrative of the history and operational record of the various types, the book also includes some 175 illustrations portraying the locomotives featured.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ian Allan Ltd
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0711030677
• ISBN 13: 9780711030671
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160