Jeremy Clements

The GWR exposed: Swindon in the days of Collett and Hawksworth. OPC, 2015.. 192pp.
On page 93 it is written: "The exercise was brilliantly executed,, making the GWR's essay into steam streamllining far and away the most successful among the 'Big Four'. Collett's tactical masterstroke quickly extinguished the impetus, allowing the stupidity to wither without regret. The other companies were less fortnate". The author appears to have overlooked Mallard's record breaking achievement and the beauty of that locomotive contrasted with half-hearted Swindon doddlling doodle. Nevertheless, this is an interesting book which does not fail to show Collett's conservatism, but probably overplays Hawksworth's relatively minor engineering achievements. It is still far from clear who was really responsible for the brilliant Great Western diesel railcars. The author possiblr overplays the strange fate of the Barry L class of 0-6-4T: four were reboiled with Swindon taper boilers and then withdrawn with "indecent haste" — but Swindon may have learned about the problems with Midland Deeley 0-6-4Ts and decided to avoid this wheel arrangement [incidentally KPJ remembers seeing a SECR J class arriving at London Bridge in the early post-WW2 period with commuters from Surrey!]. There is an extended examination of the Saint class 4-6-0 fitted with Lentz poppet valves with excellent photographs. The proposed compound Castle is more lightly sketched than the Beardmore  and Armstrong Whitworth proposals to haul the City trains to their destinations on the main line by diesel electric power houses, although Rutherford covered this more fully in Backtrack as progress advanced much further in Buenos Ayres. Much better than book about Dean

The LMS Turbomotive from evolution to legacy. with Kevin Robertson. Manchester: Crecy Publishing, 2016. 159pp.
Reviewed (very well received) by Phil Atkins in Backtrack, 2017, 31, 318. Having purchased my own copy Kevin is struck by the excellence of most of the illustrations, but the book fails to give full bibliographical references and fails in one or two places to annotate potential misreadings. For instance the H. Fowler who commented on the Bond paper was clearly not Sir Henry, but probably his son, who is a somewhat "in the shadows" figure. If steamindex had been consulted some minor addeitions might have been made about the sound of the machine. Joint authors should identify who did what. It would seem probable that Robinson was involved in the other turbine locomotives, especially the gas turbines. One sad omission is the Lamont boilered condensing turbine locomotive illustrated in Robin Barnes's Locomotives that never were which received the blesssing of E.S. Cox. The coal-fired gas turbine is also illustrated by Barnes. Further neither the names of Willans nor Heilmann figure in the what appears to be an excellent index. Miisses Hamilton Ellis's observations which introduce the name Harry Johnson, CME of the Swedish railway which had adopted turbine propulsion on three locomotives to convey iron ore, and the syren sound of the Turbpmotive in action. Review by Kevin Jones in J. Rlly Canal Hist. Soc., 2017 (230), 192.

Locomotives of the Great Southern & Western Railway. with Malcolm McMahon and Alan O'Rourke. Collon: Collon Publishing, 2020.:

Locomotives of the GSR. Newtownards: Colourpoint, 2008. 384pp.

William Dean: the greatest of them all. Southampton:. Noodle Books. 228pp.
Reviewed J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc.,2013 (217) 53