Mainline Steam in the Seventies : A Pictorial Story of Preserved Locomotives at Work

Herefordshire: 6000 Locomotive Association. Very Good/Very Good. 1974. Hard Cover. Sm 4to 0950312010 Dust jacket complete except price clipped. Green cloth boards. No ownership marks. Numerous b/w photographs. 75 pages clean and tight. In 1927 when 'King George V' went to the United States to represent Britain at Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Centenary Exhibition, an American journalist wrote, `Man has devised no other machine that expresses its feelings so frankly and unmistakably. A locomotive sighs, it pants, it coughs, it barks; it emits impassioned shrieks and mournful toots; it puts forth powerful staccato protests at hauling a heavy load or climbing a steep grade; it purrs ecstatically as it romps along the rails at a mile a minute; it can hiss and throb and snort and tinkle.' In those few lines he summed up the feelings that are still aroused by the sight, sound and smells of living steam locomotives. I am proud that it was my Company that restored to working life this most famous of the old G.W.R. locomotives and that it was `King George V' that led the main line return to steam in October 1971. With the co-operation of the British Rail Board it is now possible for the giants of the steam era to operate from time to time on selected routes, bringing pleasure to countless thousands. This book captures some of the great moments of the new era of steam in the early seventies. It is a tribute to the craftsmanship of the past and to the determinisation of that host of people who feel that steam locomotives should not be mere museum relics but instead a living and moving part of our recent history. PETER J PRIOR Chairman and Chief Executive, HP Bulmer Limited and President of the 6000 Locomotive Association .