FOUNDED in 1928, the Railway Correspondence and Travel Society harboured ambitions from the start to produce and create permanent records of the country’s railways. A publications team was quickly assembled and books like Locomotives of the GWR (1933) and The Locomotives of the LNER, 1923- 1937 (1937) were produced and well received.
Titles such as this touched on an enormous topic of interest to enthusiasts, historians and modellers alike, and by 1954 it became clear that the LNER volume, good as it was, barely scratched the surface of the full history of a fleet from a range of constituent companies, and the post-grouping giant itself.
The decision was taken to develop a series comprising 10 volumes to give as full a history as the society’s resources could muster. The opening of the first part said: “Within these 10 volumes an attempt will be made to describe in detail the history of the 10,000 or so locomotives owned at one time or another by the LNER and the work they have done, covering the full history of all engines, including details of origin, leading dimensions, dates of construction, rebuilding and withdrawal detail variations, classification, engine diagrams and allocation and work.”
There was so much to be written and illustrated that the final product ran to no fewer than 19 volumes. So massive was the task undertaken by a large group of talented and committed volunteers that the first part was not ready until 1963, thanks to the likes of Eric Fry and Maurice Boddy, both happily still with us. Ken Cooke, chief mechanical & electrical engineer of the Eastern and North Eastern Regions of British Railways, was extremely helpful throughout, giving full access to records and other material. Part 1 was entitled The Preliminary Survey, subsequent parts covering classes with common wheel arrangements, with tender and tank engines always recorded separately, then such as diesels, electrics, departmental engines, and powered railcars. No fewer than 3323 images illustrated the series. It was 1994 by the time the last volume came out, meaning that the series had taken longer than the life of the company itself!