Early & First Generation Green Diesels in Photographs

The Big Four railways had experimented with diesel-powered shunting locomotives from 1933 with the Great Western Railway seeing the advantages of operating diesel-powered railcars. The 1955 Modernisation Report predicted the end of steam power and laid out the basis of the Pilot Scheme for the introduction of main-line diesel locomotives. A number of these hastily designed classes of locomotives were found wanting in terms of power and especially reliability, but pressure to forge ahead with their introduction meant the numbers constructed were unrealistic and many had very short operating lives. Fortunately, the Pilot Scheme did bring forward some excellent reliable classes of locomotives that were produced in large numbers, with examples surviving into the modern railway operating companies and the preservation scene. This book brings together the work of four photographers: Ron Buckley, Robert Butterfield, Andrew Forsyth and Hugh Ramsay charting the development of diesels through their photographs.