Main Line Diesel Locomotives: A Photographic History

IN A feast of railway nostalgia, Main Line Diesel Locomotives celebrates the history of Britishbuilt main line diesel locomotives constructed between 1947 and 1997.

Written by respected railway author and photographer, John Vaughan, this gloriously illustrated book features locomotives from the whole of mainland Britain. It places particular emphasis on the years from 1968, when steam ended on British Railways, to the arrival of the “new generation”

of North American diesels at the end of the 1990s.

The authoritative text is supported by more than 300 photographs of British-built diesels hauling an almost infinite variety of trains. These have been taken by some of the UK’s top railway photographers and – in many cases – are now published for the first time.

The book also includes an historical account of the changes to railway infrastructure that occurred over half a century and describes the impact of such events as the 1955 British Railways modernisation scheme and its early attempt to eliminate steam.

As a result, this title will appeal to all those interested in the development of rail travel in Britain and leaves no stone unturned in its detailed treatment of the subject, with more than 30 types of main line diesel locomotive extensively featured, to help bring the railways of yesteryear to life.

Many of the classes of locomotive covered have long been extinct on our railways.

Fortunately, this meticulously researched review now offers readers the chance to relive the halcyon days of British Rail which these embodied, while also paying homage to the few survivors that have remained active in the 21st century.

Vaughan has been a rail fan since the age of ten, when in 1953 he took his first railway photograph on a simple plastic camera and started to collect train numbers.

Since his first book was published in 1968, he has gone on to write more than 40 railway titles in the past four decades, specialising in diesel traction and the county of Cornwall.

He is a former editor of Modern Railways Pictorial Magazine and now lives in Goring by Sea, in Sussex.