Alan Maund lived in Worcestershire all his life and had an enthusiasm for steam. He traveled extensively in Britain and built up a large railway photographic archive from the late 1950s onwards. This book is made up entirely of Alan's collection of photographs from across the Midlands. It will appeal to railway enthusiasts, modelers, and those with an interest in local history. Alan started using color film in 1959 and color slides make up the majority of the photographs. Many enthusiasts in this era had a policy of filming steam only and ignoring the new diesel interlopers, but not Alan; they do make appearances, even including some early electric classes. A particular passion of Alan's was small industrial steam locomotives, and he restored a Kerr Stuart 'Wren' class 0-4-0 to working order between 1959 and 1961. So in addition to larger British Railways locomotives, their smaller relations are also seen across the Midlands. Alan passed on in 1982 and his widow, Wendy, gave Alan's collection of railway photographs to filmmaker and author Michael Clemens, whose late father was a friend of Alan's. Alan's collection lives on today at film shows around the country and now in this book.

— Features a wealth of previously unpublished images, many in full colour — Features extended commentaries from the author, which are rich in detail — Of interest to train enthusiasts, local historians and modellers Robert ‘Ellis’ James-Robertson lived in Worcester from the mid-1950s and travelled around the country, building-up a large railway archive. In the early 1960s, a few of Ellis’ photographs were published in books and magazines and the credit ‘R. E. James-Robertson’ may be familiar to some. This book of mainly unpublished colour and mono photographs has been created entirely from his collection within a 35-mile radius of Worcester. It will appeal to railway enthusiasts, modellers and those with an interest in local history. The period covered is from the mid-1950s through to the mid-1960s; steam is the predominant traction throughout together with occasional shots of early diesel power. Coverage includes parts of Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire, plus the Birmingham area. Ellis passed on in April 2015 aged 92. His daughters contacted filmmaker and author Michael Clemens whose late father was a friend of Ellis. His collection lives on at shows around the country given by the author and now in this series of books using his photographic archive.

The Last Years of Steam Around the East Midlands covers most of the railways across the county and the locomotives that worked over them. In the main, the time period covers the ten years or so from the late 1950s up to the end of steam working in the East Midlands. In addition to steam locomotives, their diesel replacements will also be shown. A number of industrial locations will also be visited, and in particular, the book explores the now-closed Ironstone Railways of the East Midlands. The photographs, a mixture of color and black and white, come mostly from those taken by the author and his late father, with the balance coming from his father's old friends. Most of the photographs have never been published, with all images accompanied by an extensive and informative commentary.

The Last Years of Steam in Shropshire and the Severn Valley covers most of the railways across the county and the locomotives that worked over them. In the main, the time period is the ten years or so from the mid-1950s up to the end of steam working in Shropshire. This book will appeal to railway enthusiasts, modellers, and those interested in local history. Whilst there are main line photographs, this book mainly visits the now largely vanished secondary routes and branch lines throughout the county - a feast of Salop steam. The Severn Valley Railway is seen in the pre-preservation era over its entire distance from Shrewsbury to Bridgnorth, Kidderminster, and Hartlebury. Virtually all of the photographs, a mixture of black-and-white and colour, have never been published before. With one exception, all the photographs were all taken by the author, his late father, or his friend the late Alan Maund. Despite the word 'Steam' appearing in the title of this book, the time period covered saw the introduction, in quantity, of steam's diesel replacements, and these are seen, particularly the single unit railcars introduced by both the GWR and BR to improve the economics of rural branch lines.

The book investigates the vast number of locomotives that came to the London Midland Region in 1948 at Nationalisation. This is a class by class survey with over 200 illustrations, covering all the top link and freight classes, also looking at the smaller types of locomotive, operating on branch lines and doing more humble tasks. The author explores what happened to them and also looks at those that eventually made their way into preservation.

The disappearance of the steam locomotive in the land of its birth touched the hearts of millions, but when the government announced the Modernisation Plan for Britain's railways in 1955, under which steam was to be phased out in favour of diesel and electric traction, few people took it seriously. Steam locomotives were an integral part of our daily lives and had been for almost one and a half centuries. Furthermore, they were still being built in large numbers. It was popularly believed that they would see the century out and probably well beyond that. But the reality was that by 1968 a mere thirteen years after the Modernisation Plan steam traction had disappeared from Britain's main line railways. It was harrowing to witness the breaking up of engines, which were the icons of their day, capable of working long-distance inter-city expresses weighing 400 tons on schedules faster than a mile a minute. Top speeds of 100mph were not unknown.This book chronicles the last few years as scrap yards all over Britain went into overtime, cutting up thousands of locomotives and releasing a bounty of more than a million tons of scrap whilst the engines, which remained in service, were a shadow of their former selves; filthy, wheezing and clanking their way to an ignominious end. The pictures in this book are augmented by essays written by Colin Garratt at the time. Although steam disappeared from the main line network it survives in everdwindling numbers on industrial systems such as collieries, ironstone mines, power stations, shipyards, sugar factories, paper mills and docks. In such environments steam traction eked out a further decade and during this time many of the industrial locations closed rendering the locomotives redundant. The British steam locomotive was born amid the coalfields and was destined to die there one and three quarter centuries later.