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Speed Records on Britain's Railways - A Chronicle of the Steam Era, by O.S. Nock

Published by David & Charles in 1971, 207 pages. Hardback with Dust Jacket - c.14cm by 21cm (RW4)

From the inside front fly leaf: Great Britain holds the world record for the highest speed ever recorded by a steam locomotive; as the birth­place of railways it was no more than natural that the early speed records were made there. Between the broad­gauge 4-2-2 Great Britain of the Great Western Railway, which made the London-Didcot record in 1848, and the London & North Eastern streamliner Mallard, which attained 126 mph in 1938, lie ninety years of great achievement.

Mr Nock recalls some famous mid­ Victorian runs-the races to Scotland in 1888 and 1895, and the competi­tion for the Ocean Mail traffic be­tween Plymouth and London in the early 1900s. He traces how rivalry for speed started in the Grouping Era, and how the long-established speed supremacy of the Great Western was eclipsed by the great Pacific engines of the LNER and LMS. Mr Nock tells of numerous individual feats of speed, and presents records of steam locomotives that topped 90 mph before 1914, and in later years achieved 100 mph.

The condition of the book is generally very good. The dust jacket has several minor scuffs and blemishes, and light wear along the edges and corners, but the spine is tight and intact, and all pages are clean, intact, unblemished and tightly bound.

When we post our books, we take great care in packaging them - first your book will be wrapped in bubblewrap, which protects the book and even keeps out any rain (in the event that it's raining when the postie delivers it!). Then we wrap your book in stiff cardboard, taking care to make sure all the corners are protected, and finally the package is wrapped in thick brown paper.

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