Yeadon’s Register of LNER Locomotives
Yeadon’s Register of LNER Locomotives
As I am normally the buyer of Children’s books for the business I often write about children’s books, authors and illustrators. However, as we have recently purchased a very large collection of books about trains and buses, I thought I would take a look at what the collection contained.
Yeadon’s Register is a series of 56 books covering all the locomotives of the LNER (London and North Eastern Railway). Each volume is well illustrated with class introduction and full history of each locomotive, leaving the reader in no doubt as to what happened to any particular LNER locomotive during its lifetime. A must for the railway enthusiast!
Willie Yeadon was born in Yeadon, West Riding of Yorkshire in 1907. He trained as a mechanical engineer and in the 1930s he joined the Hull firm Fenner. His initial railway interest was the LNWR (London and North Western Railway), however, on moving to East Yorkshire he began to study the activities of the LNER and, around 1933, he started to collect railway images. British Rail’s modernisation plan in the 1950s prompted Yeadon to begin a systematic study of the Locomotives of the LNER and during this study he visited engine sheds and works.
After he retired from Fenner in 1972 he started work on Yeadon’s Register. He died peacefully in his sleep after a short illness in 1997, thus Volume 12 and later editions were published posthumously.
Yeadon’s will bequeathed his entire collection of photographs, documents and research notes to the Brynmore Jones Library of the University of Hull. The collection includes over 30,000 photographs!
I don’t know about you, but I love to see a good old-fashioned locomotive! We recently spent a day on the Severn Valley Railway, travelling to Bridgnorth from Kidderminster, pulled by a beautiful steam engine (maybe GWR 4930 Hagley Hall). On the return trip we were pulled along by a big old diesel locomotive. A very special journey indeed - there is nothing quite like the chuff chuff chuff of an old steam locomotive!
Contributed by Maria
(Published 9th Apr 2024)
