We have visited the striking colour photographic work of Tom Williams before, but this time we focus specifically on his shots of Charles Collett’s iconic ‘King’ class. Conceived as a larger, more powerful, evolution of the superlative 4-6-0 ‘Castle’ design, the resulting creation tended to polarise its crews and was by no means the answer to all of the GWR’s prayers, being operationally restricted by excessive weight. Having said this, let us not negate the brilliance of the ‘King’ design and how, arguably, it didn’t reach its operational zenith until just a few short years before the class was earmarked for withdrawal, with dieselisation of the Western Region looming. Tom Williams was born, and spent most of his early years, in Warwickshire and the lion’s share of his photographic output…
