Description
David & Charles, Published 1978. Hardcover, 143 pp.; 23 cm; second impression; illustrated with black-and-white photographs; index.
Rare, out-of-print & unusual books · Since 1997
112
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Catalog notes
Condition & notes
In Very Good condition with a Very Good dust jacket. Blue textured cloth boards with gilt lettering on spine show light bumping to edges and corners and mild shelf and edge wear. Binding tight. Pages clean and unmarked. Pictorial dust jacket (Ivatt Class 2 No 46471 leaving Tebay) shows light bumping and creasing to fore-edge and corners and mild shelf wear; original 4.50 net price and a small "G" sticker on front flap. Now in an archival quality (removable) Brodart cover. Nock's account of the twenty years from nationalisation in 1948 to the last regular steam-hauled trains on 3 August 1968 and the Liverpool to Carlisle farewell special of 11 August, written from his own footplate experience and friendships with the men who ran the transition. Chapters cover motive power in 1948, Riddles and the case for standardisation, the BR Standard classes against the regional designs, the 1948 interchange trials, the 1955 Modernisation Plan, the diesel-versus-steam years, the farewells of 1968, and the preservation movement that followed. Photographs by Derek Cross, E. D. Bruton, R. E. Vincent, and British Railways of Britannias, Duchesses, Royal Scots, Gresley and Peppercorn Pacifics, Bulleid Pacifics, and Black Fives at work. Contents: Preface; Ten Years After; Motive Power in 1948; Standardisation, the choices before Riddles; The BR Standard locomotives and their impact; Pressures for Modernisation; The Standards versus the Regionals; 1954, Year of Destiny; Modernisation, The End of Steam foreshadowed; Diesel versus Steam, The Transition Begins; 1960 and After; Anniversaries and Farewells; Requiem for British steam; Index.