British Railway Diesel Memories 49 D For Diesels 2

It is easy to criticise the seemingly haphazard, wasteful and all embracing decisions made by British Railways during the 1950s quest to modernise the motive power on Britain's main line railways. The number of tenders put out to all and sundry to supply the various types of diesel locomotives was somewhat naive and revealed an impatience bordering on madness. Post-war Britain was just emerging from the austerity and budget restraints brought on following the biggest conflict in history and it was something of a credit that a plan was drawn up to modernise British Railways just ten years after the cessation of hostilities. On a more positive aspect, what the country got was an interesting, eclectic, and varied collection of locomotive classes which was thrust upon them during a very short time period. This album presents some of those Pilot Scheme locomotives in various guises. Most of the illustrations are of the locomotives themselves either on shed, works, or stationary somewhere on the system.