Diesel Locomotives - British Rail Class 50 and 52: Illustrated History Books

English Electric Class 50 Manual (1967 onwards) - An insight into the design, construction, operation and maintenance (Haynes Train Manual)

The Class 50 locomotives were built by English Electric between 1967 and 1968. Fifty examples were built, and were initially used to haul express passenger trains on the West Coast Main Line between Crewe and Scotland.

Class 50s were nicknamed 'Hoovers' by rail enthusiasts because of the distinctive sound made by the air-filters originally fitted. The Class 50s were later moved to services in the south west of England, primarily on the mainline from London to Exeter, and were eventually retired from service in 1994.

Pages of the book "English Electric Class 50 Manual (1967 onwards) - An insight into the design, construction, operation and maintenance"

In the late-1970s BR was persuaded to name the class 50s after Royal Navy Vessels with notable records in the First and Second World Wars, and in January 1978 50035 was named Ark Royal by the captain and crew of then current aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal.
The rest of the fleet was named during the course of the next few years.

The Class 50 has always been popular with railway enthusiasts, and 17 of the original 50-strong fleet are currently preserved. This Manual provides a fascinating insight into the design, manufacture, operation and restoration of the Class 50.

Product details

Author:	Jarrod Cotter
Details:	160 pages, 11 x 8.5 x 0.51 in (28 x 21.5 x 1.3 cm), hardback
Illustrations:	many b&w and color photos
Language:	English (technical dictionaries in 19 languages are available for free download here)
Publisher:	Haynes Publishing (GB, 2017)
Series:	Haynes Train Manual
ISBN:	9781785210600

Class 50 : A Pictorial Journey (Modern Traction Profiles )

An album of photographs, mainly taken by David Cable, a well-regarded author of a number of picture albums, covering trains both in the UK and in many countries worldwide. The class 50 was an express locomotive built in the late 1960s and withdrawn at the beginning of the 1990s. Nicknamed hoovers because of their distinctive noise, they were a favourite class of many railway enthusiasts, resulting in several having been preserved.

The photos demonstrate the many areas of operation and duties undertaken by these locomotives, initially in the North of England and Scotland, and then regular duties on the Western region and finally the Southern lines from London to Exeter.

Product details

Author:	David Cable
Details:	198 pages, 7.7 x 10 x 0.75 in (19.5 x 25.5 x 1.9 cm), hardback
Illustrations:	160 b&w and color photos
Language:	English
Publisher:	Pen & Sword Books Ltd (GB, 2017)
ISBN:	9781473864412

Class 50 Locomotives

Class 50s are probably one of the best-loved diesel locomotives that have run on British Rail. Fifty of these powerful, English Electric-powered locomotives were built by EE at their Vulcan foundry from 1967 onwards. They were ordered to work express passenger workings on the northern end of the West Coast Main Line before the advent of electrification.

They performed these duties until the first members of the class were transferred away to the Western region in 1974. Here they eliminated the Class 52s from both passenger and also freight workings.
All fifty locomotives found their way to the Western Region, and then from 1979 all members of the class visited Doncaster Works for a full refurbishment, which included repainting into large logo livery.

The first member of the class was withdrawn in 1987, and by this time the class were split between Network South East and the Civil Engineers department. A large number of the class received Network South East livery before the final members of the class were withdrawn in 1994.
Quite a sizeable number found their way into preservation, but unfortunately some were scrapped having already been saved for preservation.

This collection of images includes a shot of every single member of this popular class.

Product details

Author:	Andrew Cole
Details:	96 pages, 9.25 x 6.5 x 0.47 in (23.5 x 16.5 x 1.2 cm), paperback
Illustrations:	180 b&w and color photos
Language:	English
Publisher:	Amberley Publishing (GB, 2017)
ISBN:	9781445666860

Class 50s

Containing many previously unpublished photographs, particularly of Class 50s in operation in the south of England and west of Basingstoke and Reading, this book looks at this iconic class of train in colourful detail.

Product details

Author:	Mark Pike
Details:	96 pages, 9.7 x 6.7 in (24.5 x 17 cm), paperback
Illustrations:	many color photos
Language:	English
Publisher:	Key Publishing Ltd (GB, 2023)
Series:	Britain's Railways
ISBN:	9781802822588

English Electric Class 50 Diesels - From the Western Region to Preservation

Peter J Green first photographed Class 50 diesels in action in 1975, while they were still being transferred from the London Midland to the Western Region of British Rail. But it was in the early 1980s, when they were named and painted in Large Logo livery, that his interest in the class really took off.
For Peter, they stood out from most other locomotives that were painted in the rather drab Rail Blue livery. The sound of the locomotives, particularly when running at speed, was also very impressive, producing shouts of '50!' from waiting photographers, even before the train was in sight.
The class became a particular target for his railway photography and many of his trips were made with them in mind.

Class 50s regularly worked trains around his home town of Worcester, so if he did not want to go too far, it was easy to find a satisfactory subject at which to point his camera. Before their withdrawal in the late 1980s and early 1990s, they were used on many railtours, which always provided good photographic opportunities.
Today, with many of the class working on heritage railways, and a number of privately owned locomotives registered for main line use, there is still plenty to keep his cameras occupied.
A selection of Peter's best photos of the Class 50 diesels, taken over a period of forty-five years, appear in these pages.

Product details

Author:	Peter J Green
Details:	170 pages, 11.2 x 8.5 x 0.79 in (28.5 x 21.5 x 2 cm), hardback
Illustrations:	260 b&w and 43 color photos
Language:	English
Publisher:	Pen & Sword Books Ltd (GB, 2022)
ISBN:	9781399017824

Tribute to the Class 50s

Tom Heavyside has put together 67 of his own photographs with a detailed text telling the story of the Class 50s, engines dominant in the Western Region from the late 1960s tot he 1990s.
The Class 50s replaced much-loved steam locomotives so were initially regarded with some resentment by train enthusiasts. However, as the years rolled by these venerable diesels, emblazoned with the the huge BR insignia, were looked on with more and more affection.

In this book they are seen at work at Crewe, Doncaster Works, Wigan, Glasgow, Torquay and Exeter and many more locations up and down the country.

Product details

Author:	Tom Heavyside
Details:	56 pages, 6.9 x 9 x 0.16 in (17.5 x 24 x 0.4 cm), paperback
Illustrations:	67 b&w photos
Language:	English
Publisher:	Stenlake Publishing (GB, 2019)
ISBN:	9781840338515

Type 5 Heavy Freight Locomotives (Modern Traction Profiles )

This photographic album portrays the four classes of locomotives introduced to operate on the British Railways system, prior to Privatisation in 1994. Increasing loads and deteriorating reliability of older classes necessitated the design of new, higher horsepower classes of diesel locomotives.

The four classes included one American design, the class 59, which set new standards in haulage capacity and reliability. The other three designs classes 56, 58 and 60 were more suitable to their tasks than previous models, but in the case of the class 56, suffered a poor repuatation for availability for several years, although the few remaining members of the class have now attained acceptable standards.

Of the four classes, a small number of class 56s operate in private ownership, all the class 58s have been withdrawn, but all the class 59s and 60s are in daily use throughout England and Wales.

This album has been written by David Cable, author of a series of illustrated books covering railways in the UK as well as overseas. The book shows examples of all four classes working a variety of duties at a wide range of locations.

Product details

Author:	David Cable
Details:	160 pages, 7.9 x 10.25 x 0.91 in (20 x 26 x 2.3 cm), hardback
Illustrations:	200 color photos
Language:	English
Publisher:	Pen & Sword Books Ltd (GB, 2018)
ISBN:	9781473899728

Western Class Locomotives: A tribute (Class 52)

Unusually for a large class of locomotives, all Western Class locomotives had the same prefix which gave them a unique identity. Redesignated as Class 52 in the early 1970s, they were essentially designed by and for the Western Region, which saw hydraulic transmission as the way forward in replacing the 4-6-0 steam locomotives that Swindon had produced.

However, the rest of British Rail went down the road of electric transmission as the mistakes of the wholesale lunge into dieselisation came to fruition, and when BR opted for a standard policy the Western Region was forced to comply.
It was in 1967 that the death warrant for the hydraulics was signed, though it would take more than a decade to finally end the hydraulic era.

Illustrated with full-colour photographs of all 74 of the Western Class locomotives, on a variety of workings that illustrate their versatility, this nostalgic volume gives a portrait of a much-loved, but short-lived, class of locomotive.

Product details

Author:	Bernard Mills
Details:	96 pages, 9 x 6.5 x 0.39 in (24 x 16.5 x 1 cm), paperback
Illustrations:	150 b&w and color photos
Language:	English
Publisher:	Key Publishing Ltd (GB, 2022)
ISBN:	9781913870034