From an early age David Mather had been a railway enthusiast, but by the early 1960s that interest had waned a little. However, it soon became obvious that huge changes were taking place. Although no one minded the painless removal of a few old dirty tank engines, by 1962 serious withdrawals of large passenger engines were taking place. David’s interest in steam railways was reborn in June 1966 when, as a teenager, he was on holiday at Butlin’s Holiday Camp at Pwllheli, North Wales. Preserved there were two steam locomotives that had been condemned by British Railways shortly before: ‘Princess’ Class No 46203 Princess Margaret Rose and Southern Region ‘A1X’ 0-6-0 tank loco No 32640. He realised that it was clearly time to seek out, watch and record the fast dwindling steam fleet, and while doing so between the winter of 1966 and the final demise in August 1968 he kept a diary of his travels and sightings, and took many photographs. His observations from those momentous years are presented here as written more than 40 years ago, together with some 180 photographs taken at the time.

Within a year the steam fleet had been decimated. In less than two years it had entirely disappeared. This, then, is one enthusiast’s record of the eleventh hour of British Railways steam. Keenly nostalgic in content and presentation, the book is being published in the style and format of the iconic Ian Allan ABC ‘Combined Volume’, a publication providing a complete listing of locomotive numbers that no serious steam railway enthusiast of the day could afford to be without. David Mather was born in Bolton and, he says, ‘trainspotting came as naturally to me as breathing’. At the same time he gained an interest in photography, and combining the two interests has occupied a significant part of his life ever since. After a training in biology and a career as a science teacher, he is now retired and, thanks to the digital revolution, is able to display his images to a wider audience through the internet – not only his railway pictures, but also photographs of Britain’s historical and natural heritage. He lives in York.