Locomotive Headboards: The Complete Story
The practice of naming trains has a long history. The IRISH MAIL was known thus, unofficially, from about 1848 and the FLYING SCOTSMAN from 1862. However, official recognition of these titles did not come until many years later, and engine headboards later still. Train names themselves were usually selected by the various Public Relations and Publicity Offices, though not always. The title CORNISH RIVIERA LIMITED for example, conferred by the Great Western Railway in 1906 on the through Paddington-Penzance service introduced two years earlier, was the result of a competition in The Railway Magazine which asked its readers to submit a suitable name, though in the event the winning entry was not used, and a headboard was not provided until 1951.
The first headboards for titled trains were introduced by the North British Railway in 1912 and the last by Virgin Trains in 1996, but the practice could only be said to have been common, nationally, for about fifteen years of this lengthy period.
Dave Peel's guide to the subject, researched over five years, aims to provide a comprehensive history. It covers all named trains that ran with headboards from initial small-scale use, through the LNER's extensive usage in the 1930s, mass headboarding in the early BR period, to final decline. Differing designs are examined in detail, while variations in material, shape and style are fully explored. Over 400 outstanding photographs are also included: although largely steam age in content, they also illustrate headboarded diesel and electric locomotion.
Locomotive Headboards: The Complete Story is an invaluable reference source for all railway historians, while railway modellers will also find it of great assistance.
Hardback with dust jacket, 20x27cm, 294 pages, black & white photographs
Condition: Good/Very Good with age-related discolouration to edges of book
ISBN: 9780750944625
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