Bundle – Great Northern – 4 Volumes

Description

This major four volume work covers the complete story of the Great Northern Railway, Doncaster Works and its locomotives, from earliest days to The Grouping. Each class is covered from all six designers – Cubitt, Bury, Sturrock, Stirling, Ivatt and Gresley. 1,553 Doncaster built engines are covered, plus those bought in. Their robust design was demonstrated by almost half of the GN stock passed to the LNER at Grouping surviving into British Railway ownership 25 years later.

The GNR was formed in 1847 and has always been in the forefront of locomotive interest. This series is the result of ten years research of official records by the late Norman Groves and is now the definitive work on the subject.

Volume 1 1847-66

The pioneering work of Benjamin Cubitt, the problematic period of Edward Bury and Archibald Sturrock’s work on designs to support the ECML traffic growth are presented.

Volume 2 1867-95 The Stirling Era

In 1938 the Society sponsored the first chartered rail tour. Stirling Single No. 1 hauled this train and is featured in this book, together with the other 710 engines designed by Patrick Stirling during his 28 years as Locomotive Engineer of the GNR. Stirling’s locomotives were among the most handsome ever built, including four- and six-coupled tank and tender designs in addition to his Singles classes. The complete history of all variations of design, livery, allocation and use of each engine is included.

Volume 3A 1896-1911 Ivatt

Henry Ivatt was faced with a major challenge when he succeeded Patrick Stirling as Locomotive Engineer in 1896. Much increased train weights had led to late running expresses and expensive double-heading of both these and mineral workings. London suburban trains needed more capacity. With no available completed designs, the sensational and little-known purchase of American 2-6-0s was first adopted whilst Ivatt developed his plans. He designed a fleet of fourteen classes totalling 767 locomotives over a period of fifteen years which revolutionised operations. Most memorable were undoubtedly the first British 4-4-2 Atlantic designs.

Volume 3B 1911-1923 Gresley

Gresley’s priority on appointment was for larger locomotives to handle the growing mineral, goods and commuter traffic. His first design was a Churchward inspired Mogul, the H2, followed by the acclaimed 01 2-8-0. After the First World War, he developed three-cylinder versions of these and the superb and fondly remembered N2 0-6-2Ts. The culmination of Gresley’s GNR work were his A1 Pacifies that brought a revolution on the ECML that was to last fifteen years. The complete history of all 328 Gresley GNR engines is laid out together with sections on GNR engine order numbers, Doncaster works numbers, engine headlamp codes, shed codes and complete statistics of all GNR engines.