Sir Nigel Gresley - The L.N.E.R.’s First C.M.E.

And looking at those plaques, Simon. It's a case of Happy 147th Birthday, Herbert as I type this reply on the 19/06/23 ........

 

Yes indeed, happy birthday to Herbert Nigel Gresley, today!

 

From what little I have seen Maunsell's temperament was such that it could act as an impediment to the proper function of his duties, Collett possibly ditto but in the other direction.

 

What are the chances of a "Gresley 150" in three years time with the P2, I wonder?

 

My fervent wish is that we will still have Flying Scotsman in steam for the 150th, given it is arguably his most iconic locomotive. It is 7 years into its mainline ticket and it is going to be a close run thing for sure.

You may get A3, A4 and P2, of course, but the oldest Gresley locomotive is the Gresley Society's N2 and that needs to be front and centre of such celebrations.

 

Not forgetting to include some suitable/appropriate rolling stock too. As for example the Great Northern Invalid/Observation saloon 3087 based on the NYMR and dating from 1909........

 

Quadarts too. Perfect pairing with the N2.

 

Technically, according to convention, that's Ivatt-era stock but as Gresley was Carriage & Wagon superintendent, I don't think anyone is going to argue against that!

Yes indeed!

 

We now have a front cover and a (cautious) release window of mid-September 2023. Thanks to Kevin and George at Strathwood Publishing for all their work on setting it out, and Ian MacCabe of the Gresley Society for his excellent artwork.

 

Very nice cover design.

 

Yes, no controversial wildfowl here...

 

I’ve been asked to put in some more detail on the books contents.

The book is 464 pages long. It has over 350 images, which include roughly 100 graphs and data sets analysing the performance of Gresleys locomotives and rolling stock breakdown.

There’s a mixture of colourised photographs, full on black and white and colour photographs (some appearing for the first time in print, one being a colour photo of a fully valanced garter blue A4).

We have full copies of Gresleys main patents for the LNER as appendices, the Cox Report (which is also in the Thompson Book).

We also have full copies of the streamlined trains booklets as appendices. These have never appeared in print fully and I was anxious to put them in for posterity and reference for those researching the streamlined trains.

There is also a short section on aerodynamics and both Flying Scotsman and the Gresley Society get their own chapters.

 

Is there any indication of price or pre-order ?

 

I can ask my publisher about setting up a pre-order page.

Current thinking on costs due to its size and content is down to the publisher. All I can tell you is that conversations I’ve had indicate it’s far north of the current price of the Thompson book. I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful than that.

If there’s enough interest on here towards purchase of the book I can have a chat with the publisher and see if he’d be willing to issue a discount code for Nat Pres members. But there’s no promises on that, I don’t know if this idea is a goer! But I will ask.

 

I'm braced for an increased price assuming like for like volume size, simply because of how prices have risen. I'm always happy to take advantage of a discount code, but I'd frankly trade that £5-£10 for helping to ensure that good publishers keep going and producing interesting material.

 

Agree, there is a big hole in quality railway publishing now Irwell Press has gone

 

Point of order John - my publisher took over Irwell Press as it happens, so expect to see both those books back on shelves and some new material in short order. Hope that’s good news for you I am certainly happy to be associated with Strathwood and their back catalogue.

 

The Irwell website just said that they were taking over the distribution of the remaining stock, nothing about continuing with the titles. It prompted me to quickly buy The Book of the 8Fs Vol 5.

 

You don’t have to take my word for it John. Only trying to be helpful!

 

I will take your word, I looked on the Irwell website last week, it didn't make it clear at all