Volume 9

Personal diary covering the period January 1959 to February 1960. Records Fred Rich's transition from locomotive testing work into wider Mechanical & Electrical Engineering (M&EE) responsibilities on the Southern Region of British Railways. The volume documents instructional and technical duties, including work associated with the Instruction Train, field investigations and the study of electric traction equipment, together with increasing involvement in administrative and organisational matters. It also contains extensive accounts of footplate experience, railway observation, photography and cine-filming, reflecting Rich's continuing engagement with steam locomotive operation and railway life. References to railwaymen, railway working practices and the changing railway environment reveal a growing awareness of the decline of the steam era. The volume includes substantial retrospective additions written in later years, reconstructing portions of the diary from surviving notes and memoranda. Alongside engineering and railway subjects, the diary contains reflections on family relationships and the death of Rich's father. The volume documents a significant period of professional and personal transition, linking Rich's Rugby testing years with the broader technical and administrative responsibilities of his later railway career.