British Diesel and Electric Locomotives Abroad: A Second Life Overseas

- Blurb -

This book was originally envisaged as a purely photographic overview of those British main-line diesel and electric locomotives which managed to find further useful employment across Europe after completion of their careers in the United Kingdom. However, such was the quantity of information collected regarding these exported locomotives and their operational deployment over the past twenty years that the scope of the book was expanded to incorporate both the factual and the pictorial into a detailed history of these locomotives. The geographical use of the locomotives is surprisingly extensive including France, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Kosovo, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia in the twenty years since 1998. A significant amount of exclusive factual information and over 200 previously unpublished photographs combine to provide a comprehensive insight into the British locomotives now finding a second life overseas, including coverage of Class 37, 56 and 58 locomotives on high-speed line construction work in France, Class 37 mishaps in Spain, Class 86s on their day of arrival in Bulgaria, and various types of a.c. electric locomotives in their new "natural habitats" across Eastern Europe. AUTHOR: Anthony Sayer has been a keen railway enthusiast since the age of seven with a long-standing interest in modern railway traction. Prior to retirement, he spent thirty-seven years in the steel industry, including nineteen in transport procurement and eighteen in supply-chain and logistics planning, based in the north-east of England. A four week European exchange visit to Holland in 1982 enabled experience of the ex-Woodhead electric locomotives operating between Den Haag, Rotterdam and Venlo, and simultaneously provided an introduction to the delights of foreign railway operations. Numerous European trips since 1998 have provided the opportunity to see the many classes of British Railways diesel and electric locomotives now finding useful employment across the Continent. 200 colour and b/w illustrations