Irwell Press DD2 Diesel Dawn 2 The Swindon Warships D80-D832 D866-D870
Irwell Press softback Bookazine Diesel Dawn volume 2 covering the Swindon-built Warship class diesel hydraulics, D800-D832 and D866-D870.
The startling first impression these Swindon Warships made when they burst upon a steam-dominated railway in 1958 can hardly be exaggerated. Powerful, fast and above all lightweight, THIS was the Type 4 that the Western Region had wanted and fought so hard to get. Sparkling clean, in an elegant livery with stirring red and silver nameplates, they were glamorous, mysterious even, with that striking sloping front and subtle curves, unhindered by design clutter. This second Diesel Dawn deals with the thirty-eight Warships built from 1958.
A series to record in colour and black and white the prototype origins and production lives of the first British Railways diesel locomotives, from halting beginnings in the 1950s to (sometimes) premature ends.
The introductory pages cover the conception, design and construction in the 1950s and are necessarily in black and white. The remainder of the volume illustrates the locomotives throughout their subsequent working lives through to the 1970s, in colour. Comprehensive text, extensive captions, technical data, life histories throughout.None of the many 'Diesel Dawns' of our times has been investigated, evaluated, celebrated, excoriated, praised and derided, more comprehensively in (often) more partisan ways, than that of the Western Region diesel hydraulics.
The North British version which came a couple of years later involved a different story altogether, to be related in Diesel Dawn No.3.
Authors: Gavin Glenister & John Jennison
Cover: Softback