Author Derek Phillips spent many years of his career working at Yeovil Town engine shed, cleaning and labouring at first, then as a fireman on goods and passenger trains to Exeter, Salisbury and Weymouth.
The pinnacle of engine working to him was a Bulleid Pacific and his fascination and wonder began in the days when ‘dieselisation’ and ‘electrification’ were just bad things that might never happen. Sadly they did, but a love affair with the engines continued through life into retirement.
Along with his own reminiscences, Derek has brought together the antics and adventures of a dozen or so mates and colleagues, all of them similarly enamoured of these magnificent and enigmatic locomotives, both in their original form and as rebuilt by British Railways. There is much on Derek’s stomping grounds in the West of England but Bulleids are also portrayed from every depot, Devon to Kent, from which they worked.
Over a hundred photographs show them in every conceivable mode of operation. Hardback. 152 pages.