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Branch Lines Highlights |
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Branch Lines Highlights |
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| The Banbury and Cheltenham Railway Volume 1 | Wild Swan | |||
| William Hemmings | £29.95 | 200 pages | Hardback | 2004 |
| Fully up to the high standards of its publisher, this book covers the line's history up until 1939 and the outbreak of war. The depth of research and the quality of the results and illustrations uncovered are astounding, chronologically culminating in an amazingly clear series of photographs of evacueees arriving at Chippng Norton. The same book is also available in a softbound format at £23.95 and in either format this is a beautiful book. Volume 2 (see separate description) is a detailed examination of the route and its stations from Banbury to Kingham, whilst volume 3 (not yet published) will complete the history after 1939 and cover associated ironstone workings and the remainder of the route from Kingham to Cheltenham. | ||||
| The Banbury and Cheltenham Railway Volume 2 | Wild Swan | |||
| William Hemings, Paul Karau and Chris Turner | £28.95 | 170 pages | Hardback | 2004 |
| A very detailed photograhic survey of the line from Banbury to Kingham, including the romanticaly named Rollright and Sarsden Halts and their associated sidings. Kingham is very briefly shown, presumably fuller details will be in volume 3, not yet produced. OS map extracts and a well researched and comprehensive text accompany the photographs in what is a beautifully produced and potentially definitive work on this subject. It is also available in a softback binding at £22.95. This is not a criticism exactly, but I do wonder at the sanity of the publisher in the way in which the whole work has been split into three volumes (no date for the third!) and two different bindings, there was a story that this book was rushed out to beat another publication on the same subject from Lightmoor - surely not? | ||||
| BR Steam In Dean | Lightmoor Press | |||
| Ian Pope | £9.99 | 80 pages | Softback | 1999 |
| Ben Ashworth, in my opinion, ranks alongside the greatest names in railway photography, Winston Link included. Working his unique magic on the elements of viewpoint, subject, composition and lighting, he produces memorable and often stunning images of the steam age. This book is well printed and does full justice to the photographer's art, a huge relief as his work has often been wasted within the many indifferent volumes produced by Alan Sutton of late. The subjects are nearly all freight trains, many hauled by Pannier tanks, and if your interests cover either of those two subjects, then you will find this book very hard to resist. | ||||
| The Golden Valley Railway | Wild Swan | |||
| W.H. Smith | £15.95 | 136 pages | Softback | 2002 |
| A most welcome reprint of one of Wild Swan's best ever books, first published in 1993 and out of print shortly thereafter. The subject was highly photogenic and consequently quite well covered by photographers of the day, but what sets this book apart are the photographs taken by the late Charlie Smith. Charlie was a driver on the line who sometimes took his camera to work, and the details and character that he captured with it are truly remarkable. The author and his collaborators have done a superb job of presenting the material and also include the whole story of the line's promotion, construction and demise, building upon and paying due tribute to Mowat's earlier history. This is an inspiringly beautiful book and a model of just how very good a branch line history can be. | ||||
| The Hawkhurst Branch | Wild Swan | |||
| Brian Hart | £26.95 | 252 pages | Hardback | 2000 |
| An immaculately well written and beautifully presented book on an exceptionally pretty branch line which ran for thirteen miles or so across the Weald from Paddock Wood on the Kent Coast main line. The whole story is recorded in exquisite and minute detail, from surveying and construction through the inaugural train to the "last rites", and there is even a chapter devoted to the hop - pickers and their special trains. Full scale drawings and plans of all buildings are included, as are track and signalling diagrams and the wonderful photographs cover every conceivable detail of the railway line - this is as good as it gets. | ||||
| The Mawddwy Van & Kerry Branches | Oakwood | |||
| Lewis Cozens, R.W. Kidner & Brian Poole | £14.95 | 240 pages | Softback | 2004 |
| A well illustrated book covering three Cambrian byways, which is a much extended new edition of a book first published in 1972. The first two lines were built to exploit mineral deposits whilst the Kerry line was a general carrier in an area that became important for forestry, linking to the "Kerry Tramway" (also detailed in the book) around World War 1. The Hendre Ddu tramway of 1'11" gauge running off the Mawddwy is also covered and the photographic coverage is remarkably good given how long ago all these lines closed. The large wheeled Sharp Stewart 0-4-0 tanks with their single 4 wheeled coach and wagons are quite delightful - surely the prototype for "Ivor the Engine"? | ||||
| Return To Pwllheli Please | Foxline | |||
| Derek J. Lowe | £17.95 | 120 pages | Softback | 2008 |
| A return photographic journey along the Cambrain Coast route from Machynlleth to Pwllheli. Photographs cover the 1950s up to the early 1970s and concentrate on steam workings. Fully up to the high standards of earlier volumes produced by Greg Fox and a delightful and informative record of a magical railway journey that can still be taken, albeit by "Sprinter". | ||||
| Southern Branch Lines | Capital | |||
| Michael Welch | £16.95 | 120 pages | Hardback | 2007 |
| Michael Welch consolidates his position as a top picture editor with this large format album of inspiring photographs of minor Southern Railway lines. All the photographs were taken by members of the "GLO Group", a peculiarly British institution of which full details of which are given in the book. Dating from 1959 the images depict the subject from the Weald right down to the western extremities of the "withered arm" in Cornwall. The subjects and compositions of many of the pictures chosen are quite unusual and the result is a striking pictorial record of both branch and secondary railways and the environment in which they operated. | ||||
| The Tenbury and Bewdley Railway | Wild Swan | |||
| Keith Beddoes and William H. Smith | £23.95 | 202 pages | Hardback | 1995 |
| A "cross country branch line" as defined by my tattered 9d copy of C.J. Freezer's "Modelling Branch Lines", tantalisingly written in the present tense, Great Linford, Chedworth.. oh dear, I'm afraid I'm wittering again! Running from Wooferton Junction to Bewdley, and connecting with the Cleobury Mortimer and Ditton Priors at the aforementioned place, this scenic railway ran through the Wyre Forest and crossed the Severn on an elegant lattice girdered bridge, the pillars of which still stand today. This is a truly wonderful book, beautifully produced and covering such arcane matters as an earlier canal and the art of charcoal burning. The earlier years are particularly well recorded and the overall quality and range of photographs is exceptional. | ||||