Description

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Ron Buckley’s striking photographs show the changing locomotive scene throughout the Great Western Railway and its successor the Western Region of British Railways from the mid 1930s until the end of main-line steam traction in the mid 1960s.Whilst the modern express passenger locomotives plied the main lines, a wealth of pre-grouping locomotives carried out the more mundane suburban passenger, branch-line and shunting work. Many routes continued to be worked by a series of ageing Victorian 4-4-0s and 0-6-0s until after the grouping when the Great Western supplied a series of very able 4-4-0s and later 4-6-0s, which continued operating into the 1950s and ’60s when some of the British Railways Standard classes started to appear.Great Western Steam is an evocative retrospective of a treasured and iconic company.

About the Author

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Brian J. Dickson worked in publishing for over thirty-five years. Now a volunteer locomotive fireman and driver at a heritage railway, he has previously written Diesel Power in the North East and Scottish Steam (both The History Press).Born in 1917, Ron Buckley has been photographing railways since the age of 15. He joined the London, Midland, Scottish Railway as a wages clerk in 1934 and retired in 1977 after over forty-two years’ service with the railways.