Last Days Of Steam Western And Southern

In 1955, the Modernisation Plan had just been issued which showed that steam traction's future was doomed. In the Southern Region many old classes had kept working due to the Second World War and the subsequent austerity period. No the SR 4-4-0 classes gradually disappeared, hastened by the 1961 electrification of the Kent lines. The Western Region had a more balanced engine set of 4-6-0s and tank engines, but was to see steam finish earlier. In this book, Tony Butcher's black and white images portray the poetry and the power of these living machines.