The RCTS: then and now
Britain’s leading Railway Society
ARGUABLY two of the most interesting volumes of the Railway Observer are those for 1957 and 1958. Chronicled within their covers is the beginning of the implementation of the Modernisation Plan and the great transition from steam to diesel.
Meticulously recorded are the building programmes and technical specifications of what would become the Class 20, 24 and 31 diesel-electrics. Also within these volumes we find that Derby Works completed its last steam locomotive, a Caprotti Standard Class ‘5MT’ 4-6-0, and that No. 71000 Duke of Gloucester had run over 100,000 miles in 30 months with minimum attention.