The GWR Stars, Castles and Kings: Part 2: 1930-1965
The second volume of this book opens at a time when Great Western locomotive practice and performance was indisputably pre-eminent. Design at Swindon had reached a degree of finality, and the achievements of the 'King' class engines made it appear that little more could be done with the basic Churchward 4-6-0 design. This book traces the remarkable story of how Swindon came to be eclipsed by other design centres, and yet nearly 20 years later staged such a remarkable come-back as to regain, if not pre-eminence yet certainly parity—and with the same family of locomotives. The stages in this fascinating story have been the subject of many technical papers, biographical articles, and even whole books; for the first time however Mr Nock now unfolds the story in its entirety from the early developments in scientific train timing in the 1930s, to the tests resulting in the fitting of twin-orifice blastpipes and double-chimneys. During most of this development Mr Nock was privileged to see much of the work at first hand, and to enjoy the confidence and friendship of those closely concerned. De-tails of some of the special test runs are published for the first time. A fascinating sidelight, on what might have been a remarkable development, is thrown by his reference to the proposed `Pacific', which never got beyond an out-line design of boiler and front-end. The brilliant 'artist's impression' by Victor Welch has been prepared from sketches made following information given to Mr Nock by some of those who were briefly concerned. Between them the two volumes give the most detailed information and back-ground ever published on a single class of locomotives.
Hardback with dust jacket, 160 pages, black & white photographs
Condition: Good
ISBN: 9780715347430
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