BOOK REVIEW: This 256 page book by Derek Hayes provides a wide-ranging review of the advances in speed across the rail mode from the earliest rail-mounted vehicles to the present day. Copiously illustrated, with many photographs by the author, it offers 46 short chapters and vignettes covering topics ranging from early experiments with electric traction to streamlining, the Trans Europ Express services, Britain’s Advanced Passenger Train and China’s huge high speed network.
A full chapter is devoted to speed record attempts in Germany in the 1930s, with another covering the rivalry between the London Midland & Scottish and London & North Eastern Railway companies for Anglo-Scottish traffic in the late 1920s and 1930s.
The text offers many items of interest to students of the rail mode, including a brief note about a project by the Pennsylvania Railroad T1 Steam Locomotive Trust to build another Raymond Loewy designed Type T1 locomotive by 2030, ‘with the stated objective of breaking the world steam speed record held by Britain’s A4 4468 Mallard’.
ISBN 978-0-00-870413-1
£30·00 from www.harpercollins.co.uk