Treacy's British Rail

by John Powell (Editor), Patrick Whitehouse (Editor), Eric Treacy (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  1990

  $3.25

  This is the third book about the photographs of Bishop Eric Treacy to be published by David & Charles. The previous titles were Eric Treacy: Railway Photographer and Treacy's Routes North . This latest volume contains a selection of 250 black and white illustrations taken from a collection of over 14,000 uncaptioned negatives. The change to today is lead in by the use of time capsules linked to locomotive development, each with an authoritative text alongside Treacy's pictures right up to 1978 via the locomotive exchanges. All this is blended together with tables from official sources and background information. Two chapters, The Transition Years and Standard Locomotives , chart the demise of steam. The entry of the diesel age is shown by experimental types within the Grouping Companies, which in turn led Treacy to photograph the rise of the Class 40's, Deltics, Class 25's and DMU's. Electrification is depicted by a section of BR's named trains and hardware in the form of shed allocations, shed layouts and diesel lists. The reader learns about the man himself, his regrets that his beloved steam was about to vanish. It tells of his many rides on the footplate and shows his concern with the people who were such an integral part of the trains, such as the driver oiling up the ill-fated Princess Anne which perished in the Harrow disaster, the top-hatted stationmaster at Euston and many more.

• Used

  Paperback
  2002

  $3.25

  This is a collection of more than 250 photographs which capture the irrevocable change that the founding of British Rail had on transport. But more than a historical record, this is a diary of a man who has fallen under the spell of the railway, which he describes in the following way: 'The spell - it's the friendly noise of shunting during the long and wakeful hours of the night: and it is the noise of coal being broken in the tender as the engine awaits its job. It's the fussy little 'Cauliflower' making its shaky way from Penrith to Keswick and it's the gleaming monster bringing 500 tons into King's Cross. It's the sight of signal lights winking and gleaming on a winter's evening: it's the orange light of the fire reflected on the billowing steam of the engine at night. It's the deafening noise of an engine blowing off in a station: it's the sound of carriage doors being slammed: it's the noise of milk churns being trundled, of eerie whistles in the night, of a signal bell tinkling in a nearby box, of the heavy thud of a signal lever being operated.' This is the magic that Eric Treacy conveys to his readers in this evocative pictorial record.