60 Years of West Coast Express Running
- 60 Years of West Coast Express Running
- The West Coast main line from Euston to Glasgow, with its formidable climb to Shap and Beattock summits, has always been one of the most fascinating arenas for the study of British locomotive performance. For many decades the Cumbrian fells and Scottish hills resounded to the strident music of steam locomotives battling up these banks with ever increasing loads against steadily tightening schedules. Today (1976) British Rail's sleek electric locomotives hum over the summits at 90 miles an hour with apparent lack of effort, a spectacle that the locomotive engineers of old cannot have envisaged in their wildest dreams.
- In this companion volume to the highly successful Sixty Years of Western Express Running the pre-eminent writer on locomotive performance, O.S.Nock, graphically recounts the development of express train operation and speed over this key British trunk route. It is an epic story of steam haulage, running from the graceful pre-1923 designs of the London North Western and Caledonian Railways to Stanier's magnificent LMS Pacifics, which recorded some exploits unparalleled in British locomotive history. The survey is brought right up to date with the sharply contrasted pace of today's remarkable Inter-City electrics.
- Mr Nock 's narrative is supported by a superb collection of illustrations by Britain's leading railway photographers.
- 1976, Hardback, 264 pages, 5¾" x 8½"
- Ian Allan Publishing
- ISBN-10 0711006180
- ISBN-13 9780711006188
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