Our series of reprints of the famous Ian Allan Publishing abc volumes from the 1940s to the 1960s has been welcomed both by the generation of enthusiasts who used them when they first came out and also by those who were not around at the time.
The abc Combined Volumes listed all the locomotives in operation on Britain’s railways at the time of their original publication, along with details of each class and a listing of BR shed codes. The Locoshed Books are very useful reference works showing the sheds to which every locomotive on Britain’s railways was allocated at the time of publication.
This combined volume covers all the locomotives on the books of British Railways in the winter of 1962/3. The balance of motive power on the network was shifting irrevocably at this time and though there were still large numbers of steam locomotives in service, diesel and electric traction was making significant inroads on their numbers.
This volume also includes those diesel and electric locomotives and multiple units in service at that time which were taking over an increasing number of workings and would completely replace the steam traction by the summer of 1968.
