This fascinating selection of evocative railway photographs will delight railway enthusiasts and all those who remember the days of steam. The book shows railways in and around Nottingham in the twilight years of steam, capturing areas which have long gone and are now completely redeveloped. The bulk of this wonderful collection has been drawn from the archives of Bill Reed, whose interest in railways goes back to his early childhood when his mother used to take him to her sister's in Hucknall, travelling on Sentinel Steam Railcars. Growing up in Bulwell, Bill was always aware of the rail services with such a complicated network and so many stations. When he left school the only job he could fi nd on the railways was as a messenger lad at Nottingham Victoria station. He spent his lunch hours on the station's platforms where he met local enthusiast Freddie Guildford, who encouraged him to take photographs and showed him how to develop films and make prints. Fortunately Bill's wife Mary shares his interest in railway photography. Today, when possible, they both photograph main line steam. According to Bill: 'It is a real treat to see the locomotives in such fine condition, bringing back memories, though they were seldom so clean and shining in my early days.'

The disappearance of the steam locomotive in the land of its birth touched the hearts of millions, but when the government announced the Modernisation Plan for Britain's railways in 1955, under which steam was to be phased out in favour of diesel and electric traction, few people took it seriously. Steam locomotives were an integral part of our daily lives and had been for almost one and a half centuries. Furthermore, they were still being built in large numbers. It was popularly believed that they would see the century out and probably well beyond that. But the reality was that by 1968 a mere thirteen years after the Modernisation Plan steam traction had disappeared from Britain's main line railways. It was harrowing to witness the breaking up of engines, which were the icons of their day, capable of working long-distance inter-city expresses weighing 400 tons on schedules faster than a mile a minute. Top speeds of 100mph were not unknown.This book chronicles the last few years as scrap yards all over Britain went into overtime, cutting up thousands of locomotives and releasing a bounty of more than a million tons of scrap whilst the engines, which remained in service, were a shadow of their former selves; filthy, wheezing and clanking their way to an ignominious end. The pictures in this book are augmented by essays written by Colin Garratt at the time. Although steam disappeared from the main line network it survives in everdwindling numbers on industrial systems such as collieries, ironstone mines, power stations, shipyards, sugar factories, paper mills and docks. In such environments steam traction eked out a further decade and during this time many of the industrial locations closed rendering the locomotives redundant. The British steam locomotive was born amid the coalfields and was destined to die there one and three quarter centuries later.

Following on the success of the first The Last Days of Steam in Gloucestershire, here is a second superb collection of photographs depicting the railways of Gloucestershire during the revolutionary period of 1959 to 1966. At the beginning of this period, steam was still dominant, branch lines were still operating and stations and halts were prolific.

"This book is the finest visual tribute to the steam locomotive ever published. Colin Garratt's text and photography reflect his unique odyssey to document in pictures and word the last steam locomotives of the world. With hundreds of matchless photographs, this book vividly portrays real working steam eking out its final moments amid the great landscapes of the world"--Dust jacket.

A wonderful second selection of photographs, looking at the last steam locomotives to run on Gloucestershire’s railways.

Noted railway photographer Bill Reed shows his pin-sharp colour pictures of the last days of Scottish steam in this book. The pictures illustrate steam locomotives trundling along many of the branch lines now long gone; waiting in sleepy stations, long abandoned; as well as pausing on shed or dumped on scrap lines, awaiting their ultimate fate.

A treasury of photos capturing the end of an era in transportation history—the final decade of steam locomotives in Britain. Malcolm Clegg has been taking railway pictures since the early 1960s, and also enjoys access to collections taken by friends who were recording the steam railway scene during this period. In this book, he covers a wide variety of classes of locomotives that were withdrawn during the last decade of steam traction, examples of some of which are now preserved. This book is a record of his and other peoples’ journeys during the last decade of steam in the 1960s, with photographs and informative captions looking at steam traction in a wide variety of geographical locations around the British Railways network.