Download or read book Class 50s in Operation written by David N. Clough and published by . This book was released on 2004-05-01 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the late 1960s, with the ongoing electrification of the West Coast main line south of Crewe and the imminent withdrawal of main line steam, London Midland Region faced an hiatus in terms of motive power of WCML services north towards Glasgow. The solution was to hire 50 brand-new diesel-electric locomotives to be built by English Electric. The locomotives entered service in 1967 and for the next seven years, until the completion of electrification through to Glasgow, were to provide motive power for WCML services to Glasgow. Once this initial phase was over, the locomotives were transferred to Western Region, where they helped in the replacement of the diesel-hydraulic classes before the arrival of the HSTs. Latterly based in the West Country, the class's final years of glory was to see examples in regular service over the Waterloo-Exeter line. Such was the popularity of the type, that almost half of the class was to survive into preservation. David Clough, one of Britain's foremost experts on railway performance, has been closely involved with the Class 50s from the start and is of the leading members of the main Class 50 preservation society.As such, he is ideally placed to provide the first detailed operational history of the class to have been published for more than a decade. Drawing upon his own records and photographic archive, supplemented by the work of other notable railway records and photographers, he pleces together the operational record of the class, examining their antecedents, the construction and early years on the LMR, and the final decades on the Western and Southern regions. This new volume devoted to this highly popular class will be much sought after by all those involved today with the preservation of the surviving examples as well as those who recall their glory days. With its most recent railway titles, Ian Allan Publishing has established itself at the forefront of publishers covering the early diesel era; this new volume will enhance yet further the reputation of the imprint for quality books on the subject.