Usines de locomotives - Grande Bretagne : livres (2/2)

Hunslet Locomotives Preserved

A 64 page softback illustrated album showcasing a selection of the products of this famous Leeds locomotive builder.

The North British Locomotive Company

The North British Locomotive Company came into existence in 1903 as an amalgamation of three established Glasgow locomotive manufacturers: Dubs & Co., Sharp Stewart and Neilson Reid.
Each of these companies enjoyed an excellent reputation for its products both at home and abroad. The amalgamation that formed NBL created the largest locomotive builder in the British Empire, building on the worldwide renown of its predecessors and exporting its products all over the world to places as diverse as Palestine, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada.
Its locomotive output was as varied as its clients, with steam locomotives of every gauge, and ranging from tiny tank engines to massive Beyer-Garratts.
Moving with the times, North British entered the market for diesel and electric traction after the Second World War and its lack of success in this field ultimately brought the company to its knees.

Here, Colin Alexander and Alon Siton present a lavishly illustrated exploration of one of Britain's greatest locomotive companies, including the products of its three Victorian constituents and official works photographs, images of locos in service and some of the many preserved Dubs, Sharp Stewart, Neilson and North British locomotives on heritage railways and in museums around the world.

Robinson Eight-coupled Locomotives

Commencing in 1902 with three 0-8-0 locomotives for the Great Central Railway, J G Robinson's robust freight locomotive fleet expanded rapidly, a pivotal component of General Manager Sam Fay's initiative to rectify the company's financial struggles. Upon the Grouping, the GCR transferred 241 well-crafted, potent, and efficient eight-coupled locomotives to the newly established London & North Eastern Railway.
Simultaneously, the Robinson 2-8-0 became the standard type for the Railway Operating Division of the Royal Engineers in 1917. Over 500 were manufactured, with 300 deployed to support British forces in France during World War I.

Post-war, these locomotives experienced diverse destinies, including short-term loans to nine railway companies, sales to UK and international operators, notably in China and Australia. In 1941, 92 were requisitioned for military service in the Middle East, with an additional five sent to Egypt in 1952.

This comprehensive study explores the intricate history of the Robinson locomotive family, which served on four continents from 1902 to the early 1970s. Encompassing notable types such as the 2-8-0s, original 0-8-0s, unique 0-8-4Ts, 2-8-2T derivatives, and the 'might-have-been' Garratt, the work details modifications and rebuildings undertaken by Gresley and Thompson.

A Century of Locomotive Building - By Robert Stephenson & Co 1823-1923

This concise look at the locomotive company Robert Stephenson & Co from 1823 to 1923 by J. G. Warren provides a unique history of the locomotive industry as it came to be built.
He includes details such as letters, diagrams, photos, pictures and tables to give a full understanding of that century of progression.

George and Robert Stephenson - The Railway Revolution

They carried Britain into the modern age with dramatic speed, transforming the pace and style of everyday life. We owe them to two men who, father and son, can lay claim to be the most important engineers of their time, George and Robert Stephenson.

In this excellent biography L. T. C. Rolt, author of Brunel and Thomas Telford, assesses their life and their work.

The Stephenson Railway Legacy

George Stephenson was born in 1781, the son of a Northumberland colliery engineman. Within a hundred years of his birth his railway legacy had opened up vast tracts of the planet, many of those routes engineered by George himself or his son Robert.
Their locomotive factory at Newcastle upon Tyne soon outgrew its premises and a much larger site was founded at Darlington.

The father and son are well known for their pioneering work on the Stockton & Darlington and Liverpool & Manchester railways, but they engineered more than locomotives. Robert is responsible for some of the world's most innovative and impressive bridges and the company the Stephensons founded continued (as Robert Stephenson Hawthorn) to build locomotives for a burgeoning worldwide market for well over a century.
This book will tell its story and show its global influence.

Stephensons' Rocket and the Rainhill Trials

George and Robert Stephenson's Rocket is arguably the most enduring silhouette in railway history. But why was Rocket that special? And why does the surviving locomotive look so unlike the striking yellow image that we are familiar with from books, postage stamps and the five pound note?

Rocket was built to take part in The Rainhill Trials, the competition to find a locomotive design to pull trains on the world's first passenger line, the Liverpool and Manchester. The trials caught the public's imagination and its victor, Rocket, became a sensation. It quickly became of symbol of technological progress.

The Stephensons' engine set the pattern for future world steam locomotive development for the next 130 years. But would the steam locomotive have developed differently if Rocket had not won the trials?
All these questions while exploring in words and pictures the machine that became the metaphor for what is seen as Britain's greatest gift to the industrial world: the steam locomotive.

The Yorkshire Engine Co - Sheffield's Locomotive Manufacturer

Drivers leaving the M1 at the Tinsley viaduct can still pass the buildings where the Yorkshire Engine Company constructed and repaired locomotives for a hundred years. Founded in 1865, the company outlived many of its competitors and dispatched its last locomotives in 1965.

Established by a group of local businessmen, technical expertise was provided by Archibald Sturrock, Locomotive Engineer of the Great Northern Railway, and Charles Sacre, Engineer of the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway. As the initial orders from UK and Indian railways fell away, the company was forced to take orders from Russia, where payment was not always forthcoming.
The company became a leading manufacturer of Fairlie locomotives and undertook financially disastrous experiments with the building of marine engines and tramway locomotives. By 1880, in spite of new orders from Indian railways, the business was put into liquidation and a new company formed.

This book gives a history of the financial fortunes and experiments of the company and the men who ran it.