An evocative collection of photographs documenting the final days of steam on the railways of North East England.

English Electric built their first diesel loco in 1936 and, before the company closed in 1968, built thousands of diesel and electric locos that saw service all over the world. They were among the companies chosen by BR to build prototype diesel locos for the Modernisation Scheme of 1955, which would see the replacement of steam traction by diesels and electrics. Locos were built to suit a wide variety of duties, some remaining in everyday service fifty years later. This book of mostly unpublished colour photographs from the collection of George Woods shows them in service all over the BR...

The Great Western Railway was always a little different to the rest of the railways, and that was still the position when in 1955 British Railways announced their Modernisation Plan that would see steam replaced by diesels and electrics. The rest of the railway regions opted for diesel-electric locos but the Western would be different, opting for diesel-hydraulics. The first entered service in 1957 and by 1964 six different classes were introduced. Unfortunately there were problems with them all, which were largely solved as experience was gained, but the BRB was in favour of standardisation...