[John H-T]

Alan, Sorry I didn' respond first time around. It was an occasion when I just dropped in for a quick look.

I know exactly what you mean! To my mind the beauty of British Locos reached high point in the last few years of the 19th Century. Johnson's designs for the Midland Railwy being a case in point. Fortunately we have the Johnson Spinner at York to remind us of how graceful his designs were.

If you want a real feast of Victorian design at its most graceful try and get hold of "Locomotives I have Known" (Two volumes) by J.N. Maskelyne. They are probably the finest scale drawings ever produced of locomotives of the late 19th-early 20th Century by a man who knew them in their prime.

"Locomotives I have known" was published in 1959 and "A Further Selection of Locomotives I have Known was published (postumously) in 1962.

Maskelyne lived just long enough to attend the naming of Evening Star at Swindon.

I have seen them advertised for £45 the pair which would be a snip for two such fine books. It is a case of: if you only own two railway books, these two should be hign on the list!

Incidentally there is a beautiful drawing of the SECR D Class 4-4-0!