BOOK
REVIEW OF THE MONTH
Working on Bulleid Pacifics
Derek Phillips
Irwell Press, 59A High Street, Clophill, Beds MK45 4BE. Tel: 01707 876713. Web: www.irwellpress.com. Description: Hardback, 302mm × 218mm, 152pp. ISBN: 9781911262480. Price £28.95
Train crew with stories to tell about their experiences with Bulleid ‘Pacifics’ are increasingly scarce, and despite all the putdowns from engineers and historians, opinions from men who handled them every day seems overwhelmingly complimentary.
Derek Phillips, once a fireman based at Yeovil Town, has assembled a fresh collection of anecdotes from those who knew them well, and is now safe to recount how a ‘Merchant Navy’ was at least once pushed up to 108mph through Axminster on the ‘Atlantic Coast Express’, how the drawbar of a ‘Light Pacific had to be cut through with an acetylene torch after it derailed badly in the final hours of New Year’s Eve, and how a fireman tore off the outer cladding of another with his bare hands after it caught
