Michael C. Duffy

Electric railways, 1880-1990. London: Institution of Electrical Engineers, 2003. 452pp. (IEEE History of Technology Series No. 31)
Grahame Boyes (J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc., 2003, 34, 489) states that the amount of information that the author has been able to compress into thes pages is remarkable, commends the extensive bibliography and condemns the poor reproduction of photographs. KPJ has been disappointed at some of the omissions: mainly names mentioned by Roger Hennessey which fail to materialise herein.
Technomorphology and the Stephenson traction system. Trans. Newcomen Soc. 1982, 54, 55-74. Disc.: 74-8.
The author both confirms George Stephenson's brilliance and soundly condemns "late" steam locomotive engineering (especially that of Riddles and Bulleid) to the dustbin of history. Emphasises the key role of Goss's scientific experiments which led to the American Locomotive Company's No. 50,000 and the influence of Goss upon Churchward, Gresley, Stanier, and to an extent Bulleid. In view of Duffy's critique (and of his dominance of the Society's papers in the 1980s and 1990s) his contributions should be read more widely by those who pontificate in balderdash like Stars of steam. In Note 56 he observes that "apart from the Q1 'Austerity' locomotive, his [Bulleid's] steam engines were failures.".