Motive Power Depot: Worcester Locomotive Shed

- Blurb -

WORCESTER LOCOMOTIVE SHED is the third in a series of in depth studies of Western Region motive power depots. This provincial city was a busy and fascinating rail centre with main line passenger and freight services passing through alongside local passenger and freight tripping duties that together provided an endless panorama of railway activity. The Great Western Railway had a major locomotive depot here and this book takes a detailed look at the shed, how it functioned, its locomotives and its operational duties during the latter days of steam. As well as official records valuable detail and reminiscences have been gathered from former footplate and shed staff ensuring that local custom and practice is well recorded in the story. The depot's sub-sheds at Evesham, Honeybourne, Kingham and Ledbury are also all covered in detail as well as Worcester Locomotive Works. Worcester was also home to the fondly remembered ex-GWR diesel railcars and it was their last operational base at time of final withdrawal in 1962. Their role in the area is well covered in photographs and words. Taken together the book is both a valuable historical record and a fascinating and readable story of a large motive power depot in the latter days of steam. AUTHOR: Steve Bartlett is a fourth generation railwayman, with railways in his blood. His father was Swindon Works trained, becoming a Western Region District Running & Maintenance Officer, his grandfather also worked at Swindon Works in Great Western days and his great grandfather was a station master at Staverton in Devon for twenty five years from 1898 to 1923. As a young teenager the author recorded the last days of Western Region steam, before joining the railway in 1966. He then spent almost forty years working in rail operations and managing timetable planning, locomotive and train crew diagramming before finally working on West Coast Route Modernisation.He now researches and writes about the latter days of steam, mainly on the former Great Western, specialising in locomotive depots, their allocations and operational duties. He lives in Nantwich in Cheshire and is married with two grown up sons and five grandchildren. 200 b/w illustrations and track plans