Size: 155mm x 235mm portrait (approx)
Hardback, 128 pages plus cover,
48 black and white illustrations,
colour jacket

Price £16.95 including p&p (UK)
Please add £3.00 postage Europe,
£6.00 Airmail rest of world.

Available by post from the author: Tom-Pearce-Carr,
10 Tithe Court,
Glebelands Road,
Wokingham,
Berkshire RG40 1DS
UK
Telephone: 01189 786375
(from outside the UK: 0044 1189 786375)
email: member@compliment.freeserve.co.uk

With the exception of two railway companies, the London & North Western Railway and the Midland Railway, compound locomotives, where steam from the cylinders is passed to another cylinder or cylinders for re-use rather than being ejected straight to the chimney, never featured largely in the British Isles. The reasons for this are probably many and varied, from the poor design or high maintenance costs of many experimental compounds to the sheer stubbornness of some Chief Mechanical Engineers who did not wish to have anything to do with devices not of their own design.

So why a book about 'Compounds'? The author always thought that despite the efforts of Churchward, Gresley, Bulleid et al, the full potential of the British steam locomotive was not exploited. In France, the work of Chapelon showed what could be done with a modern compound and it is a real shame that no one took the same path on this side of the Channel.

'Compound Locomotives of the British Isles' describes in detail for each railway company that did have compound locomotives, the evolution of their design and their performance in service, from the highly successful that lasted almost to the end of main line steam in the British Isles to the failures that were quickly scrapped, converted to 'simples' or quietly relegated to mundane duties. It concludes with some of the 'might have beens' that regrettably never got beyond the drawing board stage.

This book is highly recommended. It will be of particular interest to those with a fascination for British steam locomotive history, design and performance.