Beginning in 1936, just two years after Ron Buckley started what was to be almost half a decade working for the railways, London Midland Steam shows the changes in locomotive power taking place throughout the London Midland and Scottish Railway and its successor, the London Midland Region of British Railways. The photographs show the design work of Samuel Johnson, Henry Fowler, John Aspinall, George Hughes and William Stanier, featuring celebrated locomotives such as Fowler’s three-cylinder ‘Royal Scot’ class and Stanier’s impressive ‘Princess Royal’ and ‘Princess Coronation’ classes, as well as the ‘Black Five’ and ‘Jubilee’ classes. With previously unpublished images from Buckley’s archive and expert captions from Brian Dickson, London Midland Steam is a unique look at the glory days of steam.

BRIAN J. DICKSON worked in the publishing and printing industries for over 35 years before retiring in 2000. He is now an active volunteer locomotive fireman and driver at a heritage railway. He has written a number of railway books and lives in Buckinghamshire. RON BUCKLEY began photographing railways at the age of 15. He joined the LM&SR as a wages clerk in 1934 and retired in 1977 giving over 42 years’ service to the railways. He continued to take photographs of trains until 2014, when he was aged 97.