British Railways in the 1960s: Eastern Region

In 1948 the newly formed British Railways embarked on a programme of building new ‘Standard’ steam locomotives to replace older types. These started to come on stream from 1951. This programme was superseded by the 1955 scheme to dieselise and electrify many lines and so the last loco of the ‘Standard’ types was built in 1960 – and the steam locomotives had been swept entirely from the BR network by 1968. This is a photographic account of those last few years of the steam locomotives, their decline and replacement during the transition years. Not intended to convey a complete history of the railways but to illustrate how things were, to a certain extent, in the relatively recent past and impart some information through comprehensive captions, which give a sense of occasion – often a ‘last run’ of a locomotive type or over a stretch of line about to be closed down.