 | Industrial Railways |  |
| Industrial Railways | |
| A Bowaters Album | Noodle Books | |||
| Dave Hammersley | £11.95 | 80 pages | Softback | 2009 |
| A comprehensive and really well illustrated record of the very extensive railway operations that once existed around the paper mill at Sittingbourne. Latterly well known in part as the Sittingbourmne and Kemsley light railway, which has recently survived an attempt at its extinction by developers, the original system was much larger and featured standard as well as narrow gauge railway workings. The best aspect of this book to me is the way in which the author managed to record the railway in its industrial setting, which makes for a much more interesting record than would a loco-centric book. The photographs include a number of good colour shots and at the price this book is good value indeed. | ||||
| Devonport Dockyard Railway | Twelveheads | |||
| Paul Burkhalter | £25.00 | 150 pages | Hardback | 1996 |
| An exquisite book for which the publishers deserve the highest praise. Not only is the photographic reproduction and printing superb, but the design and layout is also very pleasing. The subject is fascinating, and being a military system has received relatively little coverage to date. This is a wonderful book which will appeal to railway connossieurs of all persuasions. | ||||
| The Gwendraeth Valleys Railway | Oakwood | |||
| M.R.C. Price | £9.95 | 136 pages | Softback | 1997 |
| The complicated history of a very short length of railway line which left the GWR main line at Kidwelly, and struck North for a couple of miles towards a quarry. The most significant relic is "Margaret", a saddle tank built by Fox Walker of Bristol in 1878, which was rescued and can be seen preserved at Scolton Manor Country Park. The book has full details of the industries served and their associated railways, including the fascinating Kidwelly tinplate works. | ||||
| Industrial Railways of the South West | Twelveheads | |||
| Michael Messenger | £9.50 | 96 pages | Softback | 2005 |
| Another beautifully produced book from this outstanding publisher, uniform in size and format to their Lee Moor book but in perfect bound softback. The photographs and text describe the range of industries and activities supported by railway activity as much as the railways themselves, which are about an equal mixture of narrow and standard gauges. Personal highlights were the several Ruston 48DS photographs and detailed photographs of a 1965 visit to the peat workings around the S&D, including a "Lister" and train crossing the "branch" on the level. Most photographs were taken by the author and have not been seen in print before. | ||||
| Industrial Steam in the '50s and '60s | Alan Sutton | |||
| Eric Sawford | £19.99 | 148 pages | Hardback | 2005 |
| Although I stock little of this publisher's output, they do sometimes produce a decent book, and this is a really decent book by any publishers standards, being a first class collection of photographs, predominantly covering standard gauge subjects. The photographer/author has a good eye for the unusual and interesting amongst locomotives and presents here a wide variety of types from numerous different manufacturers. The photographs are uniformly clear and detailed and concentrate on the locomotive as the subject. There are a lot of Pecketts, which pleased me greatly, although one small criticism is a slight lack of detail regarding owning companies and industries served. All in all a really good picture album if this is your subject. | ||||
| The Lee Moor Tramway | Twelveheads | |||
| Roy E. Taylor | £16.00 | 96 pages | Hardback | 1999 |
| A very attractively produced and well illustrated record of this famous china clay tramway. Built to the unusual gauge of 4'6" it crossed the GWR main line at Laira Junction and being the older of the two routes, its horse drawn trucks took precedence over the trains of the GW. Most of the over 130 photographs have never been published before and, together with the extended captions, they give a full and pleasing record of the line, its stock and the industry it served. | ||||
| North Devon Clay The story of an industry and its railways | Twelveheads | |||
| Michael Messenger | £21.00 | 120 pages | Hardback | 2007 |
| A superb book, detailing all aspects of the North Devon ball clay industry and the railways that served it. Starting with the development of the clay industry at Meeth the book goes on to describe the history of the narrow gauge Torrington and Marland Railway, including detailed chapters covering both its rolling stock and innovative engineer. John Barraclough Fell. The subsequent standard gauge line is then described in detail with final chapters covering the later clay workings at Meeth and its railway stock. As with all Twelveheads books the presentation and quality of both research and writing is first class. What sets this book apart though is the quality and breadth of photographic coverage, quite superb and covering all eras. My personal favourites are generally those shots taken by the author himself, a fantastic record of heath robinson operations on a delightfuly ramshackle looking system. Owners of the earlier edition of this book will definitely want this new one, it adds a great deal and really is something of a bargain at the price asked. | ||||
| Railways of the High Peak, Onwards to Cromford and High Peak Junction | Foxline | |||
| N. Jones and J.M. Bentley | £12.95 | 96 pages | Softback | 2001 |
| Continuing the account of the Cromford and High Peak Railway, a photographic album of high quality with extended captions and a somewhat enigmatic narrative. All aspects and periods of the line's history are covered, as is the relevant industrial history and present day uses made of the trackbed. The strength of the book however lies in its very clear photographic coverage of the area's extinct transport system. | ||||
| Severn and Wye Railway Volume 4 | Wild Swan | |||
| Ian Pope and Paul Karau | £29.95 | 174 pages | Hardback | 2009 |
| After a very long wait, coverage of the mineral loop - a delightfully obscure piece of freight railway linking Drybrook Road in the north with Tufts Junction in the south. Largely disused from 1940, collieries along the line loom large with extensive photographs showing their features and operation well, less so for the more obscure ones but the whole is nonetheless a great record of a railway backwater from a lost age. | ||||
| Slate Quarry Album | RCL Publications | |||
| Gordon & Ann Hatherill | £24.00 | 188 pages | Softback | 2009 |
| A much enlarged (over twice the size) new edition of a beautiful book, containg many more photographs and much more information than the original, but again providing a striking and memorably well produced testament to the slate industry of North Wales. The main quarries covered are those at Maenofferen, Penrhyn and Aberllefenni although another chapter discusses what is left to see at Dinworic, including some good historic shots. Other chapters describe in detail the physical activities and equipment associated with slate quarrying, quarrying itself, inclines, trackwork and tramways, wagons, locomotives and also Blondins - including a heart stopping account of a final inspection of one of these machines. A final chapter features some walks along tramways and into remote quarry sites, all beautifully photographed. As with the first edition, the quality and detail of Gordon and Ann's writing, sketches, photographs and observations is first class and the standard of presentation and design of the book is fully up to the high standards that we have come to expect from its publisher, the talented Roy Link. | ||||
| The South Yorkshire Joint Railway | Oakwood | |||
| B.J. Elliott | £13.95 | 208 pages | Softback | 2002 |
| An unusual railway, built to serve the South Yorkshire coalfield it became a joint line after grouping, finally lost its passenger service in 1929 and yet continues to operate to this day. Its fortunes are intimately connected with those of the South Yorkshire coalfield, which it serves, and this book is as much an account of coalfield development and politics as it is railway history, although this is not at the expense of the railway history which is fuly detailed and illustrated. | ||||
| Tramways and Railways of John Knowles (Wooden Box) Ltd | Industrial Railway Society | |||
| Roy Etherington and Roger West | £14.00 | 104 pages | Hardback | 1997 |
| A nicely designed and put together book which describes and illustrates both the narrow gauge (18") and standard gauge railway systems used by one of the "better Victorian clay products works" near Derby. The quality of the photography is excellent including some super colour shots, and these together with scale drawings, facsimile engineering drawings and detailed site maps utilising colour are all skilfully combined into a really pleasing book. | ||||