Diesel history book?

[Nearholmer]

Hello,

 

Can anyone recommend a good, solid history of ‘dieselisation’ in Ireland, ideally covering both CIE and NIR (I’m already fairly well clued-up on the CDR experience)?

 

I’m really looking for something that covers technical and policy matters in a bit of depth, rather than, for instance, a photo album or ‘class histories’ that go into masses of detail about liveries, superficial external detail changes, and trains hauled etc.

 

As an instance of the sort of thing I’d like to understand, does anyone know what went on in the background when CIE decided not to follow Milne’s recommendation to retain  steam for longer in 1948, and where was Bulleid in all this (his son’s biog of him is really sketchy on his role in dieselisation)?

 

Many thanks in advance for any pointers you can give, Kevin

[Mike 84C]

Irish Metro-Vick Diesels by Barry Carse Published by Colourpoint. ISBN1-898392-15-3. It was £4.99.   mine has proved  very useful . The guys on IRM.net may prove helpful. I find they always  are.

Locomotives of the GSR by Clements & McMahon is a very interesting book about the steam side of things but its final chapters does point to reasons why Milne's recommendations were not taken up.  Mick

[jhb171achil]

16 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

 

 

As an instance of the sort of thing I’d like to understand, does anyone know what went on in the background when CIE decided not to follow Milne’s recommendation to retain  steam for longer in 1948, and where was Bulleid in all this 

 

As others mention, yes, Barry's book is excellent. It's out of print, so you're looking at Ebay. I'll see him on Saturday, so i will ask if he has a spare copy.

 

There was a degree of political pressure leading to dieselisation, I remember being told by a gentleman who was in the GNR's Dundalk Works, but regularly in touch with Inchicore. I don't fully know the details.

[kirley]

Diesel Dawn by Colm Flanagan, “Northern Ireland was an important pioneer in the use of diesel traction on Railways in the British Isles. This work tells the story of this contribution to the dawn of dieselisation and looks at the diesel railcar fleets introduced by the UTA in between 1950 and 1968.”

[jhb171achil]

Had a yarn with Barry - he has had none left for years, which is what I thought!

 

Time for a reprint, perhaps!