After the Second World War, the drive for the modernisation of Britain's railways ushered in a new breed of locomotive: the Diesel. Diesel-powered trains had been around for some time, but faced with a coal crisis and the Clean Air Act in the 1950s, it was seen as a part of the solution for British Rail. This beautifully illustrated book, written by an expert on rail history, charts the rise and decline of Britain's diesel-powered locomotives. It covers a period of great change and experimentation, where the iconic steam engines that had dominated for a century were replaced by a series of modern diesels including the ill-fated 'Westerns' and the more successful 'Deltics'.

After the Second World War, the drive for the modernisation of Britain's railways ushered in a new breed of locomotive: the Diesel. Diesel-powered trains had been around for some time, but faced with a coal crisis and the Clean Air Act in the 1950s, it was seen as a part of the solution for British Rail. This beautifully illustrated book, written by an expert on rail history, charts the rise and decline of Britain's diesel-powered locomotives. It covers a period of great change and experimentation, where the iconic steam engines that had dominated for a century were replaced by a series of modern diesels including the ill-fated 'Westerns' and the more successful 'Deltics'.

Powered by twin 1,650bhp engines, the Deltic was Britain's first truly reliable diesel main line locomotive.

A look at the iconic and important pilot scheme diesel locos.

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 18. Chapters: British Railways DP1, British Rail Class 23, British Rail Class 55, Dark class fast patrol boat, Deltic 9000 Fund, Hunt class mine countermeasures vessel, Tjeld class patrol boat, Ton class minesweeper. Excerpt: The British Rail Class 55 is a class of diesel locomotive built in 1961 and 1962 by English Electric. They were designed for the high-speed express passenger services on the East Coast Main Line between London King's Cross and Edinburgh. They gained the name "Deltic" from the prototype locomotive, DP1 Deltic, which in turn was named for its Napier Deltic power units. Twenty-two locomotives were built: they dominated express passenger services on the East Coast Main Line (ECML) particularly London - Leeds and London - Edinburgh services until 1978 when InterCity 125 'High Speed Trains' were introduced. 1978-81 saw them gradually relegated to semi-fast or newspaper-parcel-sleeper services along the ECML (destinations including Cleethorpes, Harrogate, Hull, Scarborough and Aberdeen) plus occasional forays 'offline' - York - Liverpool Lime Street semi-fast and Edinburgh - Carlisle via Newcastle stoppers. Withdrawal came at the end of 1981. Six locomotives were preserved and are still running today. A sectioned Napier Deltic engine at the National Railway MuseumFollowing trials with the prototype DP1 Deltic locomotive, an order was placed with English Electric for a production fleet of 22 units (reduced from the originally-planned 23 ), replacing more than twice that number (55) of Gresley Pacifics. A first, was that the locomotives were purchased under a service contract, English Electric agreeing to maintain them, including their engines and generators, for a fixed price. Additional Deltic engines were produced to enable engines to be swapped out regularly for overhaul while keeping the locomotives...