Fred Kerr: 6 books

In the 1980s British Railways sought a cheap replacement for the ailing Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) trainsets which saw the introduction of the Class 14x trainsets that became known as Pacers. These proved to be cheap to operate hence popular with the operators but less popular with the travelling...

The author, Fred Kerr, was introduced to the world of industrial railways in 1956 when his parents moved from Edinburgh to Corby in Northamptonshire, where the local steelworks offered a mix of locomotives from several manufacturers. When steam traction finished on BR in August 1968, Fred's interest...

In an earlier album titled BR Diesel Locomotives in Preservation Fred Kerr detailed the many classes of BR diesel locomotives that had been preserved and noted that some purchases had been made with the hope of operating them on the national network. The Railways Bill 1993 provided an opportunity...

When British Railways (BR) initiated its Modernization Plan in 1954 it had little experience of diesel locomotives thus initiated a Pilot Scheme to trial combinations of the three elements comprised within a locomotive – the engine, transmission and body. The initial orders for 174 locomotives...

When British Railways was privatized in 1994, much interest was generated by the franchise arrangements, including the new operators and the specific requirements of the franchise agreements. The West Coast Main Line (WCML) was a major operation offered as two franchises covering Inter City and Cross-Country...

When BR ran its “15 guinea Special” in August 1968 many believed that steam locomotives would quickly become a “thing of the past” and that future workings would be restricted to the heritage lines which had begun to appear. Initially that seemed to be the case with the only exception being...