Keats may have been moved to poetic heights by looking at Chapman’s edition of Homer but for a boy of 11 or 12 in the 1950s or 1960s, what book could possibly compare with his first Ian Allan ABC Combined Volume?! That fascinating and wonderfully laid out encyclopaedic publication shed vivid light on the railway scene around us and treats hitherto undreamed of in other parts of the country.
One of its fascinations was the single locomotive. To the new enthusiast there was little knowledge of what had gone before, nothing to show whether a locomotive was the last remaining example of something once commonplace or a genuine one-off.
I offer here some memories of a range of one-offs as I came across them in a range of Ian Allan and other books (such as those in the series) at the time. Don’t look for consistency or comprehensiveness in these
