The world-famous Beyer, Peacock works of Gorton, Manchester, is remembered principally for its remarkable Beyer-Garratt articulated locomotives, which ran in forty-eight countries. The firm would also turn out steam lorries and steam tram engines. Among the company's iconic domestic designs were the 4-4-0T condensing engines for the pre-electrified Metropolitan Railway in London, the narrow-gauge 2-4-0 tank engine that is synonymous with the Isle of Man and the stylish and powerful diesel-hydraulic Hymeks for British Railways' Western Region.

Beyer, Peacock exported many of its 8,000 steam, diesel and electric locomotives all over the world and this book illustrates a variety of these throughout the company's 112-year existence, beginning in 1854.