Review: 'Bulleid: Last Giant of Steam'

I was extremely fortunate to recently acquire a very difficult to find (for a reasonable price, $30Au) book on one of the most controversial figures of British railway history, Oliver Bulleid.



The text, Bulleid:Last Giant of Steam by Sean Day-Lewis is an examination of O.V.S Bulleid's life, of course dealing with his locomotive developments as C.M.E of the Southern and later in Ireland, but also his earliest days on the Great Northern, his experiences in the Great War and later rejoining the Great Northen and continuing his partnership with Sir Nigel Gresley, which only ended with Bulleid's transfer to the SR.

A particularly nice touch of this book is the interesting and very often amusing anecdotes about various events that occurred to Bulleid or even others, which makes the text more interesting overall. Especially, the episodes of interaction between Bulleid and Gresley are a highlight.

For the locomotive enthusiast, however, this book will appeal most due to its examination of engines and rolling stock Bulleid designed or was connected with, and you will almost certainly learn something new about the various designs: for instance, the original appearance of the Bulleid 'Merchant Navy' class was considerably more 'air smoothed' and without smoke deflectors, in fact it looks quite odd considering what we are used to knowing the class to look like. One thing that surely few people would have seen before, however, was the fact that Bulleid experimentally fitted a wooden mock up of airsmoothed style streamlining to 'Schools' class 4-4-0 no.935 Sevenoaks, perhaps drawing inspiration from Gresley's similar A4 style addition to his B-17 4-6-0s. Only the outbreak of war stopped this from developing further, and it is a shame that the idea never got passed the mockup (of which a works photo is thankfully included!).

What is also refreshing is how Bulleid's more radical moves (the pacifics and 'Leader') are given the opportunity to be justified in Mr Bulleid's own words- the reader, while he or she might not agree with the engines themselves, would have to admit that at least they have sound theory behind them- most notably, representing Bulleid's attempt (with 'Leader' and the 'Turf burner' for C.I.E) to go beyond the Stephensonian principles and show steam traction could match the new diesels and most importantly, deserved a future.

I rate this overall, a fantastic text which gives Mr Bulleid a fair hearing with regard to all his experiments and shows what an innovator he was, not only with steam but also in carriage design and electric traction. I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone interested in the Southern railway, experimental steam, locomotive engineers- and the steam enthusiast as a whole.

I cannot, however, give a perfect score- the main issue is that this book is LONG out of print, and finding one for a fair price is next to impossible: 25 pounds is the lowest I have found currently, which might be fair to UK residents, but its over 50$ AU without the $14 postage, ridiculous for most Australian or overseas readers. I was fortunate enough to troll across it by accident on ebay (the seller had not even put the title in the listing heading, I only recognised it by the picture!) but it will not be easy to repeat this success- I suggest trying antiqbook or ukbookworld or similar sites with an impressive collection of old railway books. If I come across any, I will post the links here for your convienience.

Rating: 9.5/10

Another new build: Great Central Railway 'D7'

Yes, another new build.

This one is set up by the Great Central Railway Rollingstock trust and has been in existence since around August 2007!

The locomotive type this time around is the lesser known GCR Class '2' 4-4-0, better remembered under the LNER classification D7. These engines were originally built in 1887 for the Manchester Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway before its metamorphosis into the Great Central, and the last was withdrawn by the LNER in December 1940...after use as a makeshift air shelter! (Considering their low tractive effort of 14,144 lb it is surprising the LNER managed to find a use for them).

There seems to be some controversy over the types origins, as my copy of Locomotives Illustrated 170 tells me, based on a comment in the RCTS Locomotives of the LNER, which claims:

"the genesis of this class is obscure"

(note: I have no knowledge as to whether this is true or not, owing to the fact I hed never heard of this class before reading of the new build project).

Interestingly, the engine already has some vital components that would be very expensive to build new: the Boiler, tender chassis and cylinder block- the block is new and the boiler is in excellent condition, although both are a slightly (very negligable) different sizes that will make no difference in the finished engine.

The spokesman, Mr. Tony Fairburn, has been quoted as saying the engine will a lot less difficult to maintain due to its lack of complexity:

'Its a very simple engine...non superheated engine with slide valves...in terms of size, its akin to building an industrial engine, but with a tender.'

Given the time frame of operation, this engine will be one of the few new build pre-grouping locomotives- and because we do not have a large number of such engines surviving when compared with 20th century types, especially in operational state, it is extra important for this project to suceed and bring some Victorian operational capabilty to UK railways.

At the last update on the temporary site on the GCR Rolling Stock Trust page, the group was still waiting for the now completed Search Engine at the National Railway Museum to open in order to aquire the drawings.

I have contacted Mr Fairburn for a project update, and am currently awaiting a reply. Rest assured, I will continue to add to this project in my 'new-build' section as more information comes in.

New Header!

As part of my effort to spruce the site up a bit, I've done a new and larger header which isn't exactly the best work I've ever done, but does feature two of my favourite things: 'Jeanie Deans' and of course, my alias Colonel Klink decked out happily as a guard/driver.

For my British/overseas readers, the big engine in the middle is a South Australian Railways 620 class Light Pacific, styled slightly after Sir Nigel Gresley's marvellous P2 2-8-2 'Earl Marischal'. A broad gauge engine (not to Brunel 7 foot gauge mind you, 5 ft 3 in), two of them are preserved, one in working order with the SteamRanger Heritage Railway!

(for those interested, here's a LINK)

Magazine Review: 'Backtrack'

Time for the first magazine review featured here!

In Australia, our railway magazines from overseas are usually two or even three months behind everyone else's, which is bad for current news magazines like the wonderful Steam Railway or Heritage Railway, but doesn't really matter for historical ones like Steam World, Railway Bylines (personal favourite!) and the subject of today's review, Backtrack.

(note: the above image is a cover from about a 10 year old issue- the new ones look much spiffier!)

When it comes to historical railway magazines, none of them, I repeat, NONE of them, have for me been able to match the professionalism of 'Backtrack'. Rather than simply feature articles on events, closures, locomotives and flashbacks, as seen in 'British Railways Illustrated' and 'Steam World' (both of which are great mags too!), Backtrack also analyses personalities, policies, equipment performance, myths, accident investigations and quirky articles that you won't find being dealt with by anyone else (for example, one highly interesting article was the origins of the names for the 'King Arthur' class 4-6-0s of the Southern- a most delightful piece of prose!)

Each article also references outside sources, whether they be anecdotes, articles or books, so you really do get a sense that each article has been throughly investigated for facts. However, like many written pieces dealing with often controversial issues, you will on occasion detect a hint of author's bias. One article I found to be so was one dealing with locomotive performance and merit as viewed from the shareholder's view: for example, the A4s and GWR 'Kings' were right on the money, yet Bulleid's Merchant Navy pacifics were not due to their many problems- which ignores their unorthodoxy being partially Bulleid's labour saving attempts in the days of the war, a noble attempt to save the fitter's time and money which didn't quite work out. The 'Leader' project was also savaged, where its 'lack' of benefits for shareholders and its relative low use possibilty (size and weight) were discussed, ignoring the fact Bulleid was attempting to save on turntable costs, add the convience of cab-forward diesels and proves that steam could have a future in a different form- in his case chain driven drives and diesel style cabs. The article failed to mention that the project, despite promise, was given quick disposal (and possible sabotage-see my earlier post about 'Leader:Fiasco or Triumph') by BR, and the similar engine built in Ireland did work. As Sir Winston Churchill said of Gallipoli: "The terrible ifs accumulate!"
Before this post turns into anther rant on the 'Leader' let me continue.

What also broadens 'Backtrack's appeal is the variety of era in which the magazine covers: pre-grouping companies, always getting the short end of the stick in other texts, get a surprisingly decent amount of articles on them, as do the more unsual small companies you might have not heard of before. Its not just lines or locomotives for these groups either, I have seen recently articles on the LNWR's American Publicity materials, and the Southern Railways Electrification advertisement and efforts.

A nice touch also is the dedicated effort to each month show a new and unseen group of photographs in colour on one subject: the month I'm looking at (March '09) has LBSCR Tanks in colour, a previous issue has one of my favourites, the Wainwright 'H' Class Tanks in colour!

However, for those not interested in reading a lot of writing or essays on various subjects, Backtrack might not be your cup of tea. Probably a better choice (although more expensive and rarer here) is Steam Days, which is similar but focusing on more general subjects rather than the niche of Backtrack.

So, what's my conclusion?
8/10

Pros: PROFESSIONAL! Niche market subjects, analyses of everything concieable, pre-grouping railways, not just more Black-5/Standard class colour pictures.

Cons:More expensive than some of the other magazines, pre-grouping/niche articles might not be to some liking, occasional bias against certain issues, too much writing for some?

Happily, Pendragon Publishing has a sample issue online for perusual, although its an old one it is very similar to the modern format bar the new one's more spiffy appearance.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE SAMPLE BACKTRACK ISSUE