Part 1 covered the background to the design, the first fifty locomotives from Vulcan Foundry and the 1935 engines built at Crewe, and Part 2 deals with the similar 1935 Vulcan Foundry and Armstrong Whitworth locomotives. Part 3 describes the ‘Mark 2’ 1936 Armstrong Whitworth locomotives and will sweep up the remaining pre-war engines. Part 4 deals with the wartime and immediate post-war LMS batches leaving Part 5 for the Caprottis and the final LMS and BR-built locomotives.

~

As we discover, the Black 5s were not all the same – far from it. The story unfolds in an approximate chronological sequence, which makes sense – at least more sense than other approaches. So, the books are arranged in the order in which the locomotives were introduced, with an added twist that particularly in matters such as boilers and tenders there is a certain amount of back and forward cross-referencing. Some details are covered in more depth in the earlier books and only summarised in the later parts.

~

These go anywhere locomotives could be found almost countrywide during the 1950s not just on the London Midland, Scottish and North Eastern Regions.

~