Locomotive Stock Books 1950s

Description

The Railway Correspondence and Travel Society began publishing locomotive stock books in early 1935, just a few years after the Society was formed in 1928.  Initially, they were issued as supplements to the Society’s monthly magazine The Railway Observer but later issues were released as independent books.

Information about locomotives  – and railways in general – was scarce in the early days.  The RCTS was a pioneer in gathering, sharing, and collating data for the benefit of railway enthusiasts, usually via The Railway Observer.

The format of the stock books differed from the tabular layout of Ian Allan’s ABC guides which had emerged in the 1940s and were targeted at spotters.  The pages of the RCTS stock books were arranged as compact lists, to be used as a reference source for the mature enthusiast. No longer unique, the series came to a (temporary) close in the mid-1950s – though it did go on to be revived in 1960.

The Society is now reissuing these historically important reference books as facsimiles.  It is not possible to match the production standards of a modern original, but we have done our best.  The text has been whitened, blemishes removed, and half-tone images processed into pixels.

Various other supplements, covering locomotive sheds, and allocations are included where appropriate.

There are four volumes in the series.  The books and supplements included in Volume 3 are:

• The Locomotive Stock Book 1950 – 9th Edition
• Locomotive Allocations – LMR – December 1950
• Locomotive Allocations – SR – May 1950
• Locomotive Allocations – ER – May 1950
• Locomotive Allocations – NER – May 1950
• Locomotive Allocations – ScR – May 1950
• Locomotive Sheds February 1950
• Locomotive Allocations – WR – May 1950
• Locomotive Allocations – SR – May 1951
• The Locomotive Stock Book 1952 – 10th Edition
• Locomotive Allocations – SR -July 1953
• Locomotive Allocations – LMR – March 1954
• Locomotive Allocations – WR – February 1954
• Locomotive Allocations – ScR – April 1954
• Locomotive Allocations – ER and NER – November 1954
• Locomotive Allocations – SR – December 1954
• Stock Alterations 1952-54 – 11th Edition