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Book review: March 2012

Reviews this issue include:
• British Railways Steam Locomotive Allocations






 
 

British Railways Steam Locomotive Allocations

By Hugh Longworth

ANYONE who owned a Locoshed book as a lad needs to have this amazing ‘big boy’s’ version. At 528 A4-sized pages, it will probably be the heaviest and thickest book we review this year.

It is quite simply a breathtaking piece of research and cross-referencing that tells you almost everything you need to know about where BR’s steam locomotives were based.

There are basically three main sources of information:

Firstly, each loco is listed in numerical order with the names of the depot it was allocated to on January 1st 1948, 1951, 1954, 1957, 1960, 1963 and 1966.

Secondly, (and this is the really natty and novel bit), there is a UK map showing, by means of dots or blobs, the distribution of each class of BR loco in the same years (that’s several hundred maps!). They give the reader an instant visual idea of how locos were spread through the county and how their distribution changed over the years. Underneath each map is a list showing how many examples of that class were allocated to each depot – the 75 ‘Black Fives’ allocated to Perth in 1951 being a particularly large blob!

Thirdly, every shed is listed in alphabetical (not Regional) order, with the numbers of all the engines allocated to it at all those three-year intervals.

Mr Longworth must have spent years of his life compiling this book and although The Railway Magazine did, a couple of years ago, highlight the many pitfalls and inaccuracies connected with publication of such lists, the reader will find enough of general interest in these maps to compensate for any numerical errors inadvertently incorporated.

Included is a small but well chosen selection of photos illustrating some rarely-photographed designs, many of which were withdrawn in the first few years of the BR era.

The book is intended to be a companion volume to the author’s previous work, ‘British Railways Steam Locomotives 1948-1968’, but each book can also act as a standalone in its own right.

Oxford Publishing Company, Riverdene Business Park, Hersham, Surrey KT12 4RG; 528pp; hardback; 300x225mm; ISBN 978-0-8609-3642-8; £35.