BRITISH STEAM AROUND THE REGIONS Hardcover Book

BRITISH STEAM AROUND THE REGIONS Hardcover Book.

In the mid-1950s the steam locomotive was supreme as the chief form of motive power on the railways of Britain. Although electrification was established in isolated areas, and diesel-powered locomotives were coming into general use for shunting, British Railways had just produced a range of Standard steam locomotives and thus the future of steam seemed secure for many years to come.

The locomotive enthusiast's chief concern was that these new 'Standards* would quickly multiply and replace many old favourites from the pre-nationalisation companies - little was it imagined that old favourites and would-be usurpers alike would all be swept away in just over a decade.

It was against this background of imminent changes in the motive power scene that the authors turned to railway photography as a means of preserving permanently their own memories of steam.

Camera dealers grew rich as the usual tribulations and setbacks of this fascinating but often frustrating hobby were endured. Many holidays and weekends were devoted to railway photo-graphy, often in pursuit of the last survivor of a particular class of engine, while other more healthy types were largely ignored - though these would probably be found in decline themselves very soon afterwards.

As this book is intended to present a more generalised view of British Railways steam than has been usual in this series, in the following pages are to be seen 'memories of steam' from places as far apart as Cornwall and the Dornoch Firth, East Anglia and West Wales, and covering a wide variety of locomotives at work on British Railways as well as a brief glimpse of Irish and narrow gauge steam.

Most enduring memories are perhaps of those sights and experiences with which we were most familiar: 'Jubilees' slogging up to Sheffield's southern escarpments laden with 12 or 13 bogies; the always-gleaming 'Sandringhams' on the Harwich boat train; long summer days with the ex-LNER Pacifics on the GN main line south of Retford. One could come home from the GN line with a camera-full of photographs for the price of a modest day return ticket, out behind a 'Director' 4-4-0 and returning at dusk maybe on an anglers' special behind an old K2 Mogul: great days which will never return.

Great days, that is, for some of us. For we should remember that the steam engines which provided such thrilling sights for the uninvolved amateur often meant nightmare jobs for many railwaymen. Changes were inevitable and today our railways have rejected the past and face a challenging future with new equipment.

Steam enthusiasts must now be content with occasional glimpses of preserved locomotives in action, and while such events are welcome they are for many unavoidably infused with a sense of artificiality. It is only by looking back at photographic records that a little of the true flavour of the steam era on British Railways may be recaptured. Hopefully this selection of photographs may do just that for many who enthused over the British steam locomotive during its final decade, and possibly for others who never witnessed, or took notice of, the everyday scenes here recorded.