This book is a comprehensive history of the four coupled tank engines absorbed by the Great Western Railway – locomotives of nine Broad Gauge companies, nineteen Standard Gauge companies, mainly in the South West which became part of the GWR between the 1870s and 1914, and a further eighteen companies, mainly in South Wales absorbed by the GWR in 1922 and 1923 at the formation of the ‘Big Four’ Grouping. The locomotives described and illustrated range from the 4-4-0 Broad Gauge saddle tanks of the South Devon and Bristol & Exeter Railways to the large 4-4-4 tank locomotives of the Midland & South Western Junction Railway, not forgetting the numerous and varied 0-4-0 pug saddle tanks of the Swansea Harbour Trust and the Powlesland & Mason company. The book includes thirty-two weight diagrams and nearly 200 photographs, many of exotic and rare locomotives.

This book is a comprehensive history of all twenty-six classes of four coupled tank engines commissioned by the Great Western Railway or built at their Wolverhampton and Swindon Works, from the Broad Gauge 2-4-0 and 4-4-0 tanks of the 1840s and 1850s to the well known Collett 0-4-2 branch line engines of classes 48XX (later renumbered 14XX) and 58XX of the 1930s. As well as the Broad Gauge engines, the strange looking ‘Covertibles’ of William Dean, a number of experimental ‘one-off’ designs, the numerous Wolverhampton 0-4-2Ts of the ‘517’ class and the Swindon built ‘2-4-0 ‘Metro Tanks’ are described with – where known – their allocation and operation. The book includes twenty weight diagrams and nearly 300 photographs, over 50 in color. The four-coupled tank engines absorbed by the Great Western from other companies at or before 1923 will be featured in a separate volume to follow.

This book is a comprehensive history of all the 0-6-0 tender locomotives built by the Great Western Railway or by railways absorbed by the GWR from the very earliest broad gauge engines designed by Daniel Gooch to the Collett 2251 class of the 1930s some of which were still under construction at nationalisation. It includes the Joseph Armstrong ‘Standard Goods’ and the famous Dean Goods, many of which served overseas in the two world wars. The text of 40,000 words describes the design, construction and operation of eight GW and five ‘Absorbed’ broad gauge classes, and thirteen GW and thirteen ‘Absorbed’ standard gauge classes. The book has over 250 black and white and 30 color photos, weight diagrams and drawings.