Great Western Steam: The Railway Photographs of R.J. (Ron) Buckley

The evocative photographs of railwayman Ron Buckley reveal the story of steam on the Great Western Railway. The GWR was regarded by enthusiasts as having huge pride in its locomotive design, producing clean uncluttered lines and incorporating engineering excellence that saw the ‘Saint’ and ‘Star’ classes lead the way. The less glamourous side was the amount of coal traffic it carried from the South Wales coalfields. Ron Buckley’s photographs show the changing scene throughout the GWR and its successor, the Western Region of BR, from the mid-1930s until the end of main line steam in the 1960s. Whilst the modern express passenger locomotives plied the main lines, a wealth of pre-grouping locomotives carried out the more mundane work on secondary and branch lines, and ageing Victorian 4-4-0s and 0-6-0s and 0-6-2 tank locomotive classes from the pre-grouping Welsh railways continued working well into the 1950s. AUTHORS: Ron Buckley is in his nineties and has been photographing railways since the age of 15. He joined the LM and SR as a wages clerk in 1934 and retired in 1977 after over 42 years’ service with the railways. He lives in Staffordshire. Brian Dickson worked in publishing in Edinburgh and London for over 35 years before retiring in 2000. Since retiring he has become a railway author, volunteer locomotive fireman and driver at a heritage railway. He lives in Buckinghamshire. 172 b/w illustrations