THE PATRIOTS:

A Pictorial Record Volume One 45500-45525 BY PETER SIKES

• THE LMS-PATRIOT COMPANY LTD

Showcase for unseen images. Cover could be improved.

PRICE: £21.95 (inc. P&P) RATING:

As well as building its new ‘5XP’ No. 5551 The Unknown Warrior, the LMS-Patriot Project has also built up a huge collection of archive photographs of the class – enough for not one but two albums, this being the first.

Featuring each member of the

class in numerical order, along with a brief history of the engine and the background to its name, it mainly uses unpublished pictures. As is to be expected, their quality varies, but all have reproduced well – ‘selfpublished’ is often another way of saying ‘low production values’, but not in this case.

It captures the character of these chunky, squared-off machines to perfection, especially the study of No. 45507 Royal Tank Corps on shed at Preston – ordinary ‘front three-quarter’ though it is, it somehow stood out – and Dick Blenkinsop’s superb photo of No. 45509 The Derbyshire Yeomanry at Gloucester Eastgate a few pages on.

A fine tribute to this muchmissed class, and a tasty appetiser of what we can look forward to – both in the second instalment and when No. 5551 steams. (TJ)