THESE two books, which cover a large part of the BR network during an era remembered with affection by so many trainspotters, are the 20th and 21st volumes for Great Northern Books by the prolific Doncaster-born author PeterTuffrey, writes Geoff Courtney.
Each contains more than 200 black-and-white and colour photographs from the author’s personal collection, and both follow what has become the tried-and-trusted formula of placing the images in the alphabetic order of their locations.
Thus, the London volume starts at Acton with H16 class No. 30520 and ends at Wimbledon with Merchant Navy Pacific No. 35016 Elders Fyffes passing Durnsford Road EMU depot, while the North East volume begins at Alnmouth, where V2 class No. 60836 is running light engine, and finishes its journey at Woodhorn Colliery in Northumberland, located in what was once the largest pit village in the world, with J27 class No. 65877.
London Steam embraces all the usual suspects, including King’s Cross, Euston, Marylebone, Paddington, Liverpool Street, Waterloo and Victoria, and such sheds as Nine Elms, Bricklayers Arms, Old Oak Common, Neasden, Camden, Willesden, and Stratford – a cornucopia of locations that were at the heart of the capital’s steam enthusiasts’hobby and doubtless the envy of many spotters from further afield.
There’s‘Brit’No 70004 William Shakespeare on the‘Golden Arrow’at both Brixton and Victoria stations, Royal Scot No. 46115 Scots
