The ABC Of British Railways Locomotives: Nos. 1-9999 As Standard Locomotives: Summer 1954 Edition

by Ian Allen Not Available (Na)

Over the years Ian Allan Publishing has enjoyed great success with reprinting the classic 'Combined Volume 'abc' titles from the golden days of Britain's railways, a time before the Beeching cuts saw vast swathes of the railway network sadly consigned to the history book. This new reprint of the combined volume for 1954 is certain to be extremely popular. It covers a time of great change, when Britain's railways had been nationalised for six years and many of the relatively small and aged classes inherited from the 'Big Four' companies were rapidly disappearing. The 'abc' reprints have always found a ready market amongst those who were avid enthusiasts in their youth and who look back on their adolescence with great nostalgia. For a broader audience this book represents an excellent source of reference material, providing a magnificent snapshot of all the locomotives operating on Britain's railways at this significant moment in time. As such they are particularly useful guides for modellers, offering vital information essential for the recreation of the railway network as it existed at the time.

284 pages, Hardcover

First published October 6, 2008

Reviews

[Richard Newbold · Rating 4 out of 5]

The issue with this excellent series of reprints of the original ABC Combined Volume series, is quality of reproduction of the b&w photographs identifying some of the locomotives whose numbers are listed within. For this year, the publishers chose to go with a good quality semi-gloss paper throughout, which given the lack of contrast of some of the photos, gives an excellent result. For the record, 1954 was a bit of a calm before the storm year; a steady flow of new standard locomotives and still a good variety of pre-grouping locos in evidence, with a generous number of photos of the Eastern Region notable in this valuable little book.