British Railways Standard Steam Locomotives: The End of an Era: 5 - Tapa dura

This book represents the final stage in the Society's quest to present the complete story of British locomotive standardisation to culminate in the twelve BR Standard designs that totalled 999 engines. This final publication covers a number of topics and using papers from the Mr. R. Bond and Mr. G. Dow collections the book asks whether the Standard project was required and what happened to it, how the locomotive works of the UK handled repairs and developments of various locomotive types including comparison of Standards with existing designs. There are sections on the naming policy adopted in regard to specifically Britannias, how the shed and shed code system had developed but in particular with reference to dealing with the Standard classes. A further lengthy section deals with Locomotive Performance and shows various comparisons with other locomotive types. More repair tables have been provided following feedback from earlier volumes and inevitably this book provides a list of amendments and correction to the previous four volumes. In a major departure for the society this book features all colour photographs of Standard locomotives in traffic, many not seen in print before. This volume represents the comprehensive conclusion to the series and draws a line under many questions asked about the Standards.