"The monochrome photographs are wonderfully atmospheric...the historical context is well explained and the book production quality is high, in all, quite good value for the money."

The Railway Correspondence and Travel Society, The Railway Observer - December 2023, Volume 93

"Overall this is an informative and accessible read and worth buying if you like the BR Standards, a number of which continue to give good service on UK heritage railways along with various WDs, USAs, Hunslet Austerities and S160s."

Tenterden Terrier (Col. Stephens Railway Museum)

Robert Riddles was a British Locomotive engineer born 23rd May 1892 in Sussex, and died 18th June 1983. Amongst many of the locomotives he designed was a class 9F 2-10-0 (wheel arrangement) Number 92220 and called ‘Evening Star’ which was built at Swindon works in 1960 and withdrawn in 1965. Historically it was the 999th British Rail Standard Locomotive and the last steam locomotive to be built by British Rail.

Since its British Rail working days, Evening Star operated on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, from 1973 - 1975: then York Railway History Museum until 1986, and then loaned to North York Moors Railway.

The book guides the reader through the career of Robert Riddles on the London Midland & Scottish Railway together with his war time service. In the early 1950’s he was the British Railways Executive to Mechanical & Electrical Engineering and was responsible for the introduction of a range of 2 cylinder standardised steam locomotives intended for service until the 1970’s.

Aided by logs, the author provides class by class comments on the locomotives designed by Robert Riddles. Colin Boocock was an apprentice at Eastleigh Works when the locomotives arrived at Eastleigh for their first overhaul, and later worked on British Railways as a chartered mechanical engineer.

Doncaster Family History Society

As featured in

Steam World - November 2023

"Colin Boocock was apprenticed as a railway engineer and knew these classes well. He is ideally placed to assess their engineering as well as performance. Overall a good book about engines that should perhaps never have been built."

The Journal for The Society of Model & Experimental Engineers - Volume 31 - Number 5 - October 2023