Civil
Engineers Wagons Volume 2 – Early British Rail: 1968-1977 Available June 2012
by
David Larkin
The first five Kestrel Railway Books volumes by David Larkin looked at the revenue-earning
wagon fleet operated by British Railways and its immediate successor, British
Rail. This volume is the second of three
looking at the substantial fleet of specially-designed wagons that were used
for track maintenance, and focusses on the many forms of early mechanized
on-track plant, such as ballast cleaners, cranes and track relaying units, all
of which were hauled to site. It also
covers the self-propelled machines that preceded or followed the ballast
trains, such as track recorders, tampers, liners and consolidators.
As for the wagons themselves, only
three new types were introduced in this period, all bogie ballast hoppers, but
there was a mass repainting of the existing fleet and the introduction of TOPS
codes. The book includes build details,
the telegraphic code
names used to identify the Civil Engineers wagons throughout the period and
details of the number series for each type.
There is quite an overlap
throughout the three volumes in this series, but this volume concentrates on
the period from 1968 to 1977 – a very different period from the previous
twenty years. Local gangs disappeared
and were replaced by mobile gangs that arrived by road transport. Although cranes had always been in use by the
Civil Engineers, and some early tamping machines had been tried out, there was
no push towards mechanization until the late 1950s, when track relaying units
began to appear. These were followed in
the 1960s by ballast cleaners and tamping machines. All these are fully covered in this volume.
Softback: 96
pages
273 x 215mm
978-1-905505-24-1
Price:
£14.00 (tbc)
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One
of three volumes in the same series – Volume 3 will be released in 2012/3
