Diesel Decade: Volume 1 - Scottish Diesels between 1964 and 1974

Diesel Decade: Volume 1 - Scottish Diesels between 1964 and 1974

The first few years after the end of steam on British Railways brought a brave new world of diesel and electric traction to the network. Inevitably, there were successes and extreme failures among BR’s shiny new purchases. Some classes of locomotives and units gave excellent value for taxpayers’ money, enjoying long operational careers. Others proved more problematic, and the Scottish Region had more than its fair share of those, most notably the North British Type 2s and Clayton Type 1s. Examples of both types will be found in this volume, as well as the far more dependable English Electric and Sulzer-engine classes. Inside these pages you will find Scottish Region ‘modern traction’ ranging from four-wheeled diesel-hydraulic shunters and diesel-mechanical railbuses to the mighty Deltics and 25kV AC electrics. Scotland’s railway landscapes range from urban, industrial Glasgow to rolling Border country, dramatic Highland backdrops and coastal firths. The superb, nostalgic Les MacDowall photographic archive holds images of long-scrapped locomotives at long-gone Scottish stations, sheds and lineside locations. His photographs were taken at a time when few bothered to point their cameras at diesels and electrics, during a decade often neglected by railway photographers, from the mid-1960s through to the mid-1970s.