WHAT is not to like about a volume of original photographs taken during the time the charismatic Class 50s were being used in Devon and Somerset?
The book takes each section of line from Somerton (on the Berks & Hants) and Chard Junction (on the Waterloo line) to Totnes, the branches to the likes of Paignton, Barnstaple and Exmouth, the freight only Meldon, Heathfield and Torrington lines, plus heritage lines. The square format gives scope to vary the page layout and still allows sufficient space for trains in the landscape. The author has garnered the illustrations from a wide variety of sources and a large number of unusual situations, as well as their sea wall favourite shots of course.
A sparing, yet informative, text places the locomotives’ operation in a geographical context, which is then amplified by detailed captions.
The Railway Magazine’s Practice and Performance contributor John Heaton has written the foreword and added some personal recollections of working with Class 50s on a daily basis while he was area manager at Exeter during the 1980s.
The book covers duties from the Royal Train to rakes of humble coal wagons, vividly recalling days when these English Electric locomotives held sway on main line duties, and it was possible to see heavy trains sometimes booked for two Class 50s – as shown in Antony Guppy’s shot of matching liveried Nos. 50043 Eagle and 50027 Lion rounding the curve at Shaldon Bridge, Teignmouth, on a sunny September morning in 1988. JH Published by The Fifty Fund www.fiftyfund.org.uk 152 pages, hardback. £23.95