A pictorial survey of the Class 14 locomotive’s twenty-year history
in British industry. In 1957 the Western Region of British Railways
identified a need for 400 Type 1 diesel locomotives for short-haul
freight duties, but it was 1964 before the first was introduced.
General-purpose Type 1s were being delivered elsewhere but WR
management regarded these as too expensive for their requirements.
After completion of design work on the ‘Western’ locomotives,
Swindon turned to creating a cheap ‘no-frills’ Type 1. At 65% of
the cost of the Bo-Bo alternative, the Swindon 0-6-0 represented a
better ‘fit’ for the trip-freight niche. Since 1957 the privatised
road-haulage industry had decimated BR’s wagon-load sector; whilst
the 1962 Transport Act released BR from its financially-debilitating
public-service obligations, the damage had been done, and the 1963
Beeching Plan focused on closing unprofitable routes and associated
services. By 1963 the original requirement for 400 Type 1s had been
massively reduced. Fifty-six locomotives were constructed in 1964/65.
Continuing traffic losses resulted in the whole class becoming
redundant by 1969. Fortuitously, a demand for high-powered diesels on
the larger industrial railway systems saw the bulk of the locomotives
finding useful employment for a further twenty years. This companion
book to “Their Life on British Railways” provides an extensive
appraisal of “Their Life in Industry” for the forty-eight
locomotives which made the successful transition after withdrawal from
BR in 1968/69. “Inside is the most extensive published work on Class
14s in industry with illustrations, tabulated data, complete dates and
records, plus information and maps about the coal and steel sites at
which they worked. Comprehensive.” —Trackside magazine “The
amount of detail and level of research is impressive, and this series
of books is invaluable for anyone interested in modern traction
history.” —Railways Illustrated
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Their Life in Industry
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781399019200
Publisert
2024
Utgiver
Vendor
Pen & Sword Transport
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter