LMS JOURNAL

Locomotive Profiles

The National Railway Museum and the LMS Locomotive Profile Series

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The National Railway Museum (NRM) holds the largest body of technical archive material relating to the design and building of railway rolling stock in Britain.

Within this archive the surviving engineering drawings from the major railway company drawing offices and workshops are by far the most numerous type of document. Although inevitably incomplete, they are a unique resource unrivaled in Britain or overseas.

The museum is responsible for caring for and giving access to these archives and it is undertaking a long-term programme of conservation and cataloguing. There are hundreds of thousands of drawings to be worked on.

To help with this work the museum has for many years built partnerships with experts in particular fields who can contribute their skills. As a result, not only the Derby Chief Mechanical Engineers locomotive drawings, but also the Doncaster locomotive and Stratford works archives are nearing completion. Catalogues are being published as each major listing project is completed and selective microfilming has been undertaken to aIlow wider public access to popular material when catalogued. Nonetheless, there are still others works archived to be dealt with and the museum has recently developed new projects with other groups who have the skills and knowledge to assist with this work over the next few years.

All the original drawings reproduced in these volumes are from the archive of the Midland Railway Chief Mechanical Engineers Drawing Office, Derby (or London Midland and Scottish Railway Chief Mechanical Engineers Drawing Office, Derby) where the locomotives were designed. These drawings were saved, almost despite local management policy, by railway officers at Derby including R. G. Jarvis and J. B. Radford. Without their efforts much of this technical archive material would not have survived for study. The listing of the drawings has been greatly assisted by the work of R. J. Essery, D. Hunt and the late F. James who have been able to contribute information from their years of study of the subject.

Many of the photographs reproduced in the volumes are also from the National Railway Museum's extensive holdings both of official company archives and the work of individual photographers. A selection of drawings is available through the museum's copy drawings service. If there is sufficient user demand, the museum will develop this service by adding further drawings. Photographs from the museum's collections can also be ordered.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT
Library and Archive Collections
The National Railway Museum
Leeman Road
YORK
YO26 4XJ
Tel: +44(0)1904621261
the NRM Library

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