GWR books and booklets
Engines and Locomotives
The Great Western Railway first started to publish booklets in order to address the many enquiries it received for information about its engines and their names. These publications were soon recognised as being valuable publicity and advertising vehicles for the company, and the range of books available for those with an interest in such things grew considerably until the Second World War intervened.
LOCOMOTIVES of the Great Western Railway
1929 edition Click or tap to see a leaflet advertising this edition
1932 edition
This unusual publication was not a book as such, but rather a collection of 12 sepia toned plates each depicting a particular engine with each plate having a transucent cover page upon which was printed pertinent technical information. The whole was bound in an overall cover and held together by a ribbon. Each of the plates had an embossed border and could have been removed for framing. The cover carried an unsigned colour illustration of King George V, which looks to have been derived from a photograph.
The book did not carry any indication as to date or price when first published in 1929. Costing 1/- (one shilling) it appears not to have sold particularly well and was republished in exactly the same form and content in 1932, still undated, but now having Price 6d printed in the bottom right hand corner of the cover. Possibly a sign of old stock being used up, the price was sometimes rubber stamped onto the cover instead.
Click or tap on the 1932 edition thumbnail to see a leaflet advertising the publication of that edition.
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Great Western Railway Engines Names, Numbers, Types & Classes
Interest was such that, starting in February 1904, a list was published of all Great Western named engines in the Great Western Magazine which, although being the 'house magazine', was also available to the general public. Various additions and deletions to the list were noted in relevant editions of the magazine as they occurred, and a complete list was published from time to time such as the one which was published in two parts in the December 1906 and January 1907Click or tap to see a gallery of the two parts editions.
In 1911 the GWR started publishing a series of booklets for general sale listing the various classes and numbers of the locomotives in their fleet. As time passed these booklets grew in content and style from the simple first series until, by the short third series, they had developed into comprehensive books. We are attempting to collect an example of each of these publications and those in our collection are pictured, with any missing ones in a series noted for completeness.
Series 1
These booklets were all noted as being Published by the Great Western Railway Magazine, Paddington Station, London,W. and were edited by A.J.L.White. All eleven booklets in this series followed a common format having no cover illustration but with different colour covers, each carrying the year of publication. The first edition, published in 1911, was simply a copy of the lists previously published in the magazine and bore the simple title of Great Western Railway Names of Engines. In addition to the simple lists of named engines, this first edition also carried twelve full-page monochrome images of different locomotives, not all of which bore a name. The title of the second edition, published in 1914, was amended to be Great Western Railway Engines and all subsequent editions reflected the expanded contents with the sub-title of Names, Numbers, Types and Classes.
Only the final two editions carried any form of advertising material. The 1928 edition contains two pages of publicity for other GWR books, The 10:30 Limited, Caerphilly Castle and The ‘King’ of Railway Locomotives – all at 1/- each, and the jigsaws King George V (a 300 piece version at 3/6 is also mentioned), Britain’s Mightiest, Cathedral, Swansea Docks, Oxford, St. Julien, Speed, The Cornish Riviera Express, and The Freight Train – all at 2/6 each. The final edition, published in 1929, retained the GWR books list of the 1928 edition but the jigsaws page now features headings Jigsaws at 2/6, Jigsaws at 3/6 and Jigsaws at 5/-. The 300 piece King George V puzzle is the 3/6 one whilst The Torbay Express is priced at 5/-, with the list of cheaper jigsaws remaining unchanged from the previous edition.
1911 edition
23 pages, price sixpence
Printed by Mullock & Sons Ltd., Newport, Mon.
1914 edition
39 pages, price sixpence
1917 edition
47 pages, price one shilling
1919 edition
47 pages, price one shilling
1921 edition
48 pages, price one shilling
1922 edition
47 pages, price one shilling
1923 edition
47 pages, price one shilling
1925 edition
47 pages, price one shilling
1926 edition
51 pages, price one shilling
1928 edition
64 pages, price one shilling
1929 edition
64 pages, price one shilling
Printed by Underhill (Plymouth) Ltd.
Series 2
All books from this point are marked as being Published by the Great Western Railway, Paddington Station, London W.2. This second series of booklets were still stapled but no longer kept to the previous plain cover.
1st edition - 1932
The G.W.R. Engine Book – Names, Numbers, Types and Classes, 72 pages priced one shilling.
Unknown author
'Printed in England by Cheltenham Press Ltd., Cheltenham and London'
Front cover has a circular window which reveals an illustration of the locomotive King George V on the first page. The rear cover carries a circular stylised drawing of a head-on view of the same locomotive. A note at the front of this booklet states that 'With the re-issue of the Engine Book, of names, numbers, types and classes, the opportunity has been taken to augment the information given in some earlier editions by features which, it is felt, will be welcomed by all interested in Great Western locomotives'. The two pages of adverts are totally revamped. The first being devoted to the book The“King” of Railway Locomotives with the second featuring Locomotives of the Great Western Railway at 6d, and the offer of coloured plate of King George V, 'suitable for framing', at 1/-. There is a small erratum slip attached to page 33 correcting an error in the tractive effort quoted on page 32.
2nd edition - 1932
The G.W.R Engine Book – Names, Numbers, Types and Classes, 72 pages priced 1/-.
Unknown author
'Printed in England by Cheltenham Press Ltd., Cheltenham and London'
This is in all respects identical to the book above except that the error on page 32 has been corrected and the front cover has been changed. It has lost the cut-out and instead carries an image, signed Arthur Sawyer, of an unidentified King class locomotive. There is no indication of when this reprint was published, or that it is indeed a reprint as both versions simply quote the same year.
3rd edition - 1935
The Engine Book, 80 pages priced one shilling.
Unknown author
'Printed in England by J.W.Arrowsmith Ltd., 11 Quay Street, Bristol'
Sporting a colourful cover, signed Ralph Nott, which continues from the back to the front with ‘NorthStar’ silhouettes in yellow. An unidentified bright green (possibly a Castle class) locomotive and GWR roundel complete the bright cover. The note about including new features which appeared in both the 1932 editions is retained. There are four pages of advertisements in this edition, the two from the previous editions being retained. The new book entitled Cheltenham Flyer features on one of the additional pages and an updated list of jigsaws on the other.
Series 3
With this third series of books the content, whilst similar to previous editions, has been enhanced and extended and the format changed to become a bound book, uniform with other similar books already published (such as the ‘for boys of all ages’ book series). In addition to the numbered pages, each edition contained eight ruled pages at the end for making notes.
First edition
1st edition - 1938 (April)
GWR Engines – Names, Numbers, Types & Classes, 112 pages priced 1/-.
Written by W.G.Chapman
'Printed in Great Britain by Cheltenham Press Ltd., Cheltenham and London'
The front and rear covers are now identical and show a stylised image of a King class engine signed by Varnon. The adverts now cover five pages. Four are dedicated to the series Railway Books for Boys of All Ages with a page introduction and one page each for Cheltenham Flyer, Track Topics and Loco’s of the ‘Royal Road’. A final page advertises a long list of The Famous GWR Jigsaw Puzzles.
Second edition
2nd edition - 1938 (November)
A reprinted edition of this book was published in the November and at first glance would apppear to be identical to the first, still being dated simply 1938. However, close examination does reveal some detail changes that have been made. Most noticeable are a number of named engines in the first edition which were marked as having a name allocated but not yet built (mostly 'Castle' and 'Hall' class) that are now listed as being in service. Page 108 promotes the Railway Books for Boys of All Ages series and notes in the first edition that 'about 185,000 books have been distributed', this has risen to 188,000 in this later edition. One final minor alteration is that the jigsaw 'Streamline Way' is no longer listed on the last page as this puzzle was withdrawn during the course of 1938.
3rd edition - 1939
GWR Engines – Names, Numbers, Types and Classes, priced 1/-.
~ We have so far been unable to find a copy of this edition for our collection ~
4th edition - 1946
GWR Engines – Names, Numbers, Types & Classes, 108 pages priced 2/6.
Written by W.G.Chapman
'Printed in England by J.W.Arrowsmith Ltd., 11 Quay Street, Bristol'
Revised (and final) edition, but no longer with adverts for GWR publications or jigsaws (which had ceased production in 1939). The front and rear cover form one illustration, signed Chas. Mayo, depicting an unidentified King class locomotive on a turntable being operated by two crew whilst (on the rear cover) an engine is parked on a spur and, on another, a second is being re-watered
First published in 1924
First published in 1928
Published in 1936
The three books shown here form part of a series under the collective title of Books 'for Boys of All Ages' and, as such, are dealt with in more detail on the page which covers that complete series. They are nonetheless included here for completeness as they also fall under the general category of 'Engines and Locomotives'. Some other books in that particular series also contained chapters on various locomotives of the Great Western Railway.
Whilst not a book, or even a small booklet, we include this folded leaflet here as it too falls under the general category of publications by the Great Western Railway about their engines. The GWR were very proud of the 'King' class of locomotive which was introduced in 1927, and keen to extract maximum publicity from its introduction into service. The engine 'King George V' is shown as originally turned out in 1927 without the bell which was presented during its visit to the United States in that year to participate in the centenary celebrations of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company.
Click or tap on the thumbnail to see the leaflet unfolded.