The Duke class, introduced in 1895, was the first class of 4-4-0s to be built in a large quantity by the Great Western Railway. This remarkable book tells their story. The 1890s were important years for the GWR, mostly because of the conversion from broad gauge to standard gauge. Important decisions had to be made about the engines required to haul the trains on the standard gauge. These decisions were made before the final conversion to standard gauge in May 1892, but they affected the course and development of engine design on the GWR for the next twenty years. The adoption of the 4-4-0 wheel arrangement was a major change, moving away from the established 'singles' and 2-4-0 designs. It created a breakthrough for later GWR engineers to apply further improvements and development. This book gives the individual history of the sixty Duke class 4-4-0s, of which twenty were converted to Bulldogs. It is made more complicated because of the engine renumbering of December 1912. The book goes on to describe the Earl class, or Dukedogs. These engines were a development or hybrid of the Dukes.Some of these survived long enough to be in the last ten years of British Railways' steam before its demise in August 1968. There is a bonus because one of the Dukedog engines survives, no. 3217, on the Bluebell Railway. The decade of the 1890s is an interesting period of GWR history. There is much to be told. Two further books on engine history in this period by this author will follow.
