Southern Express Locomotives
The Southern Railway and its predecessors were perhaps the Cinderellas of the British railway scene with regard to steam loco-motive development - two of the constituent companies already being committed to electrification, with the third being somewhat the poorer relation but with a respected mechanical engineer. R. E. L. Maunsell's engineering career started in Ireland where he graduated to the post of Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) of the Great Southern & Western Railway. He crossed to England to take up a similar post on the South Eastern & Chatham Railway before being appointed CME of the Southern Railway in 1923. An enterprising engineer, Maunsell was handicapped by lack of money and severe civil engineering restrictions in his efforts to re-equip the Southern — which was com-mitted to electrification — with standard classes of modern locomotives. He contributed several good-looking and efficient designs to the development of the British steam locomotive, his masterpiece being the three-cylinder 'Schools' class 4-4-0. His successor, 0. V. S. Bulleid, was a born inventor with an insatiable appetite for trying out his ideas in practice. His Pacific designs for the Southern Railway were adventurous and packed with innovation. Bulleid's determination to extract greater efficiency from the traditional steam locomotive came late in time. Nationalisation came in 1948 and little changed initially. However, the 1950s saw the somewhat drastic rebuilding of Bulleid's Pacific designs, the improvements incorporated resulting in perhaps the best looking locomotives in the country.
Hardback with dust jacket, 128 pages, black & white photographs
Condition: Good/Very Good with small tear/repair to DJ
ISBN: 9780711017986
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Updated: 7 April 2025