H.Holcroft

Nominally an autobiography, this is also a detailed technical history of an interesting period in British railway history.

Holcroft began as an apprentice with the GWR, but the 'dead men's shoes' promotion of the time forced him to move to Ashford and the SECR. The Grouping to the SR led to many changes and cross-over of ideas between the sections of the SR, where this then turns into a more technical look at locos, particularly Maunsell's. One very interesting chapter is on the test running with the Anderson vapour recompression condensing loco, a promising idea but never fully developed.… (plus d'informations)