Railways Remembered: BR Traction – Green to Blue 1959-1984

Judging by the growing numbers attending modern traction themed events at heritage railways across the country, whilst the appeal of steam still endures and probably will never diminish, for many railway enthusiasts, that first generation of modern traction on British Railways, is clearly the focus of their interest. This is the first volume in our ‘Railways Remembered’ colour series to concentrate on diesel and electric traction and there was no better photographer in whose company to do this than the late Derek Cross. He was using colour photography from the 1950s onwards and recognised rather than ignored the new types of motive power coming into service. That combined with his technical and compositional expertise produced the many stunning images in these pages. He also lived in several different parts of the country during the 1960s and 1970s enabling his son, David Cross, who has compiled this selection, to present images from many parts of the BR network. The over 200 colour photographs in this book are arranged chronologically and include all types of first generation modern traction: diesel and electric locomotives, DMUs and EMUs. The photos also record the change in liveries in the period covered by the book from the initial green colour scheme to the eventually all-encompassing BR blue livery, which was first introduced in 1965. All the photographs are accompanied by informative captions based on Derek Cross’s extensive notes. This book provides an affectionate and nostalgic window on an era, well within living memory, when ‘Deltics’, ‘Warships’, ‘Westerns’ and AC electric locomotives were beginning to raise the pulses of railway enthusiasts in the way that steam locomotives had done for previous generations.