British Railways Steam 1968- The Final Chapter

This book follows, in strictly chronological form, the decline of the steam locomotive on British Railways in North West England during 1968, the last outpost of steam operation, up to its final extinction in August of that year. It is seen autobiographically through the eyes of the author and his friends, who had been following steam around the country for much longer than that final year. Each area of working steam is visited and described in the order in which it became dieselised. Statistical methods of portraying traffic, locomotive allocations and diagrams are interlaced with stories surrounding the many full day, part day, evening and overnight trips undertaken and how they affected the participants in terms of success and failure, satisfaction and frustration. Not overlooked is just how this culminating year's intensive absorption of the shrinking steam scene influenced those involved in relation to the other things in their lives.