Civil
Engineers Wagons Volume 1 – British Railways: 1948-1967
by David Larkin
The five previous 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 first of three looking at the substantial fleet of specially-designed wagons that were used for track
maintenance. The fleet included open
wagons to take fresh materials to site, ballast hopper wagons that could be
discharged on site, flat wagons to convey new rails and carry old rails away
for scrapping, and specialized brake vans to distribute ballast and take gangs
of men to remote locations.
Most of the wagon types seen in this volume were
either built for the “Big Four” railways before 1948, or
were derived from them; all are fully covered.
Towards the end of the period, former revenue-earning wagons were
transferred into the Civil Engineers fleet, and these are also included in this
volume. Finally, there is an examination
of the telegraphic code names used to identify the genuine Civil Engineers
wagons throughout the period, the reasons why they were necessary, and the
original allocations of these wagons.
There is quite an overlap
throughout the three volumes in this series, but this volume concentrates on
the period from 1948 to 1967 – a very labour-intensive
period, with little being achieved towards the mechanization that will be fully
covered in subsequent volumes.
Softback: 96 pages
273
x 215mm
978-1-905505-23-4
Price: £14.00
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The first of three volumes in this series…