Diesel Locomotives - British Railways (up to 1980): Books (2/2)

Green Diesel Days

The 1955 Railway Modernisation Plan provided for the introduction of 2,500 new diesel locomotives, with initial orders for 171 examples, to replace steam locomotives on Britain's railways. The Modernisation Plan was the death knell for steam traction, arguing that dieselisation should take place as quickly as the new locomotives could be built. In 1956, for the first time, more diesel locomotives were built than steam.

However, several of the Pilot Scheme orders were for batches of ten or twenty machines, without a prototype, a decision that BR would later come to regret. Maintenance and reliability would be problems for these early diesel locomotives.
Most coaching stock in use in the late 1950s did not allow for electrical train heating, so boilers had to be fitted to the locomotives to heat the carriages, which in turn caused weight problems.

This book takes a look, in full colour, at the green diesel days on Britain's railways as steam was being phased out.

The Green Diesel Years

The 'green diesel era' between 1955 and the early 1970s, when diesel motive power was being introduced in large numbers on Britain's railway network, is today arguably one of the favourite historical periods for enthusiasts and modellers of diesel traction. Almost from the outset, BR adopted green as its livery for diesel locomotives and DMUs - with odd exceptions (most notably the ever-independent Western Region) - and, although a new livery of Rail Blue was launched in 1964, the green livery was in sporadic evidence until the mid 1970s.

This book contains over 180 colour photographs of a huge variety of BR diesel locomotives and DMUs throughout the country in this era, and the images depict a portrait of a railway in which the infrastructure had remained recognisable for decades before undergoing wholesale changes.
Today the diesel locomotives and DMUs in this book are as much part of our history as the background scenes of the railway portrayed, making this book an invaluable source of information for railway modellers as well as historians.

Green Diesel Era

From 1958 onwards, vast numbers of diesel locomotives were constructed, both by BR's own workshops and by a growing number of outside contractors, to replace steam.
Whilst some of the new diesel designs proved to be successful, others were not, and some failed to outlast the steam locomotives that they were introduced to replace.

This colour album illustrates those early years of modern traction when many locos were being finished in an attractive green livery. Looking back at those early years of diesel motive power, the Western Region's use of hydraulic, instead of electric transmission can be seen as a mistake but so too were the designs of the Metropolitan-Vickers Co-Bo and the Clayton Bo-Bo classes.

Excluding pioneering prototypes, all of the major first generation locomotive types are featured here together with a number of early DMUs and diesel shunters, providing the reader with a colourful contrast to the grime and matt black of the ageing steam fleet.

Classic Diesels in Colour

Over the past 30 years or so, many changes have taken place on Britain's railway system - none more so than in the 1980s and '90s - with the withdrawal of many classes of diesel locomotives, thus cutting down greatly on the number of locomotive-hauled passenger trains.

However, although classes such as Deltics, Class 40s, 45s and 50s have long been withdrawn, many examples of these classes have been preserved, and over the last few years have been seen on the main lines in charge of special enthusiasts' trains.
Coupled with the withdrawals of many classes of freight locomotive and the disappearance of much infrastructure, the changes become very noticeable.

Roger Siviter's book sets out to show a great many of the now 'classic' locomotives in their everyday work of yesteryear, but also some of the many specials they can be seen on today in this impressive collection of colour photography.

Diesel-Hydraulics in the 1960s and 1970s

In 1959 Western Region management took a different stance from the rest of the network in its pursuance of diesel-hydraulic traction as opposed to diesel-electric more widely favoured elsewhere.
Perhaps the decision grew from the tendency of the WR management to try to keep the old independent spirit of the old Great Western Railway alive, but whatever the real reason they pressed ahead and put forward a rational and scientific case for the policy based on work done in Germany to develop hydraulic transmissions that were both well-established and successful.

The Western Region's hydraulic fleet included the 'Warships', the NBL Type 2 D6300s, the 'Hymeks', the 'Westerns' and lastly the D9500s.

This book covers all the types in detail with an outstanding selection of photographs to illustrate the range and variety of diesel-hydraulics that saw service across the Western Region. Informative, extended captions give a great depth of detail to the photographs, making this an invaluable portrait and work of reference.