Locomotives of the LMS NCC and its Predecessors

This is a long overdue history of the locomotives of the NCC, which was a significant part of the LMS empire in Ireland. The NCC brought a splash of Midland red to the Irish locomotive scene in the 1920s and 1930s and was a useful test bed for LMS experiments with new traction, such as Sentinel steam locomotives and diesel railcars. It also provided personnel who later filled some significant management posts for the LMS itself, such as WK Wallace, Malcolm Speir and Sir William V Wood. William Scott's book goes back to the origins of the NCC locomotive fleet in 1847, when the Belfast and Ballymena Railway ordered its first locomotives. The B&BR was renamed the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway in 1860, taking over two other railways the following year. The locomotives of these constituents, the Londonderry and Coleraine Railway and Belfast, Ballymena, Coleraine and Portrush Junction Railway are included, as well as those of the narrow gauge lines taken over in the 1880s. In 1903 the BNCR was purchased by the Midland Railway and became known as the MR (NCC), later the LMS (NCC). The book gives details of every NCC locomotive built between 1847 and the end of steam in 1970. The author is a train timer and includes sample logs of performances of the locomotive types in service after 1935. This comprehensive book is illustrated with 272 black and white pictures and 47 official drawings.