The LNER Encyclopedia

I know some of you have been waiting for this

Hush-Hush - The Story of LNER 10000 by William Brown

From his first encounter as a child with a model that seemed more like a spaceship than a locomotive, author William Brown has been fascinated by 10000. Meticulous research, involving hundreds of documents, has allowed him to piece together for the first time the true story of this intriguing part of LNER history, and the far-reaching effects it had on steam locomotive development.

Dissatisfied with all the previously available published works about this unique locomotive, the author took advantage of working at the National Railway Museum to seek out as much primary source material as he could find, culminating in the discovery of "the file" - a wide-ranging and motley collection of original North Road Works documentation relating to the locomotive.

The sheer volume of information (most of it out of chronological order, and including original memos from Gresley to Bulleid, Thompson, and the like) took months and years to sort and collate, but the result is a book that, for the first time, chronicles the full story of Gresley's "Hush-Hush" project.

Hard-back, 279mm x 218mm over covers
128 pages with 124 photographs and drawings
ISBN 978-1-905505-15-9
Price: £19.95

Don't forget our other recent "North Eastern" book 'Northumberland & Durham Railway Pictorial: 1948-1967' by Brian J Dickson:
http://www.kestrelrailwaybooks.co.uk/N&D.htm

Cheers, Howard.

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Howard

I have it on order from you and am eagerly awaiting its arrival.

Will this stimulate enough interest for a R.T.R. locomotive to appear, it would certainly cause a stir.

My copy arrived today - very interesting reading but perhaps parts are too technical for some readers. Excellent selection of photos though.

£14.95 inc postage from Amazon

Does this book also cover the A4 style rebuild, and in any detail?

There are 8 pages covering the rebuild but little text, mainly photos including four of the derailment at Peterborough. If you want full details of the rebuild the RCTS Part 6C has all the gen.

Thanks A.T.

I'd started to think there was no hope of a reply! Perhaps I'll keep my money in my pocket this time.

A fascinating picture of the Hush Hush is here http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=1 ... 6252663327 It was discovered in a commercial photographers on a badly scratched glass plate negative, i sent it to Howard too late for the book but he has managed to remove the worst scratches. It shows said loco between Tweedmouth and Spital Crossing with an Edinburgh Newcastle train in the 1930s.
An outside shout but does anyone know where the glass negative is because id pay good money to have it restored.

Saint Johnstoun wrote:My copy arrived today - very interesting reading but perhaps parts are too technical for some readers. Excellent selection of photos though.

Sorry - been very busy since Hush-Hush was published... and then there have been holidays...! Yes, it is a bit technical, but believe me, what was published was watered down a lot from the original! To be fair, Bill wanted the book to include the full story of the thinking behind the development of the locomotive, rather than just a blow-by-blow account of how it was built and its subsequent history. That said, perhaps there is still too much on the principles of thermodynamics as applied to a high pressure steam engine, but I don't think the balance is too far out. I'm pleased to say it's selling very well, so there's clearly a lot of interest in the locomotive.

redtoon1892 wrote:Will this stimulate enough interest for a R.T.R. locomotive to appear, it would certainly cause a stir.

Lawrie Loveless is working on an 0-gauge model, although I daresay it will be rather pricey! Couldn't mention it previously, as it was "under wraps", but he exhibited a prototype at the Telford Show recently. I can't find any details on the Web yet, but no doubt they'll appear here in due course: http://www.cockothenorth.net/

I attended a model railway exhibition today at Colne in Lancashire organised by Pendle Forest railway model group and on one of the layouts was a model of this train,which I have never seen before. It looked stunning and I wish now I had asked a few more questions about it. In the meantime I will be making further enquiries.

Finally managed to get a copy of this book. Fantastic read. Thoroughly enjoyed reading it and seeing pictures I had never seen before. Well worth the wait.

Malcolm

Howard wrote:perhaps there is still too much on the principles of thermodynamics as applied to a high pressure steam engine, but I don't think the balance is too far out.

Good to have an author who can write authoritatively about how and why a locomotive works, and sometimes doesn't. Surely those who aren't interested can just skip the technical bits? I'm looking forward to reading it.

It's only £12.79 on Amazon. That could be only £2.79 if you signed up for an Amazon Mastercard as you get a voucher for £10 after your application has been processed. Tear the card up if you don't want to be tempted but at least you save on the book.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_nos ... 0000&ajr=3