Volume 10

Personal diary covering the period February 1960 to April 1960. Records steam footplate journeys on British Railways' Southern Region, including detailed accounts of locomotive preparation, firing techniques, locomotive performance and railway operation during the final years of regular steam working. It contains observations on locomotive management, coal quality, steaming characteristics and route conditions, reflecting Rich's combined experience as a footplate participant and professional engineer. References to railwaymen, footplate practices and railway friendships preserve aspects of railway working culture and daily life during a period of significant change. The diary also incorporates retrospective commentary and reconstructed material added between 1981 and 1983, including reflections on the end of steam, railway modernisation and the process of recovering events from earlier notes. Particular attention is given to the retirement of driver George Washington, whose final footplate journeys form a recurring theme. Distinct from the engineering- and administration-focused volumes surrounding it, the diary serves as a memoir of Southern Region steam operation and the people, practices and experiences associated with it.