 | Miscellaneous |  |
| Miscellaneous | |
| British Railway Journal Number 74 | Wild Swan | |||
| Various | £9.95 | 80 pages | Softback | 2009 |
| A "relaunched" British Railway journal, a new format perfect bound into laminated board covers with more content than before. This issue majors on the Southern's station at Reading, a relatively small terminus that was less busy than its high level neighbour but still quite a complex of lines, an article on station bookstalls, and a superb and detailed feature on the Bristol "pugs" - of the Lancashire and Yorkshire variety. | ||||
| British Railway Journal Number 75 | Wild Swan | |||
| Various | £9.95 | 80 pages | Softback | 2010 |
| A pleasingly eclectic collection of subjects. The largest is a comprehensive feature on the Aldeburgh branch complete with scale track plans, an appealing collection of photographs of all stations and joy of joys - pictures of "Sirapite" and Garrett's amazing rail connected works at Leiston. Next is part one of a photographic journey along the Metropolitan's Brill Branch and also featured are Byfield SMJ, a visit to industrial railways near Stoke and the Tylwch Accident revisited. All within laminated boards and printed on art paper, this is a very welcome return to form of a somewhat lapsed periodical. | ||||
| The Brookwood Necropolis Railway | Oakwood | |||
| John M Clarke | £12.95 | 192 pages | Softback | 2006 |
| New edition published in 2006, an even further enlarged edition of a wonderful railway book, and the story of a truly Gothic railway service. The Necropolis Railway Company was a solution to London's problem of burying the dead, contemporary with Highgate and easily its equal in fascinating detail - it even had its own branch line. All the details are in this morbidly fascinating book, highly recommended. | ||||
| By Tube Beyond Edgware | Capital | |||
| Tony Beard | £19.95 | 136 pages | Hardback | 2002 |
| A very attractively produced book, detailing the intriguing story of an unrealised extension of the Northern Line from Edgware into the Chiltern countryside. One reason for the extension was the need for a large new depot, the construction of which reached an advanced stage before the Second World War altered the buildings intended purpose to one of aircraft production. An enormous amount of work on the extension was completed before it was finally abandoned, as the fascinating photographs and plans in this book graphically depict. | ||||
| Camp Coach Holidays On The GWR | Wild Swan | |||
| Mike Fenton | £24.95 | 218 pages | Hardback | 1999 |
| A really beautiful book, a superlatively well illustrated record of the Great Western's camping coach scheme before the war. The author has undertaken an enormous amount of research to produce this account, meeting and getting to know many folk who took such holidays in this period, and the result is a warm and personal record of life in the 1930s. The photographs are largely from personal collections, and contain a surprisingly large amount of detail and information of railway interest. I think that this is railway publishing at its very best, and all credit is due to the author and his publishers for producing such a valuable and charming book. | ||||
| Cotswolds and South Midlands | Ian Allan | |||
| Michael Clemens | £16.99 | 96 pages | Hardback | 2007 |
| A new series from Ian Allan, drawing on the photographs of the late Jim Clemens and his son Michael. I already knew Jim's name from the excellent series of Videos and now DVDs produced by B&R from his extensive cine film collection, and I am pleased to say that my resultingly high expectations of this book were exceeded on all fronts. The Clemens family lived in Pershore and the photographs in this book, which are predominantly colour, depict the fascinating collection of main and secondary lines that once existed in the counties around Worcestershire. Jim set out to record scenes and lines that he knew would be swept away and the result is a truly superb photographic record. Particular pleasures for me were the stations along the "Worse and Worse" including a lovely colour shot of Wyre (Piddle) halt and the various freight only byways featured. A beautiful and in some ways quite moving book, artfully taken photographs of interesting railway subjects. | ||||
| Edwardian Enterprise GWR | Wild Swan | |||
| Norris, Beale and Lewis | £24.95 | 208 pages | Hardback | 1987 |
| A collection of well illustrated essays describing and illustrating a period of great expansion on the Great Western Railway, the time when the network was finally completed by the construction of high speed or more direct routes and cut offs all over the system. Many other developments are featured, from electric suburban workings through "auto trains" to major new freight facilities. Canons Marsh goods depot in Bristol is shown when new and in use, very different to its current rather strange appearance as part of a recent redevelopment. | ||||
| Great Western Lines and Landscapes | Runpast | |||
| Alan Bennett | £14.99 | 96 pages | Softback | 2002 |
| Something completely different, a well written account of the Great Western's extensive publicity literature, copiously llustrated with posters, flyers and brochures from the author's collection. Much of the content has not been seen in print before, and the author's extensive research reveals the sophisticated and hard headed business approach behind such delights as "holiday haunts" and the "Riviera Limited". | ||||
| Great Western Railway Halts Volume 2 | Kestrel Railway Books | |||
| Kevin Robertson | £18.95 | 121 pages | Hardback | 2002 |
| A delightful if somewhat belated second volume, detailing all GW halts from M to Y, with additional information on A to L (volume 1) being included in an appendix. The character of the subject is revealed as being very varied, from downgraded stations to vestigial huts on the ground, and most of the places identified are illustrated photographically. There are some very charming views not least of which are three shots of Avoncliff at the end of the book, amazingly still open and recognisable today. | ||||
| Great Western Stations Volume 2 Wales | Cheona | |||
| Colin Judge | £9.95 | 60 pages | Softback | 2001 |
| The first Cheona album to be produced after Geoff Gamble's unexpected and sad demise. Well chosen photographs of Welsh stations, picked to show detail of architecture, "furniture" and track layouts, and including some very charming pictures. South Wales has been deliberately excluded in this survey, as it has been well covered in previous publications. | ||||
| London's Disused Underground Stations | Capital | |||
| J.E. Connor | £19.95 | 128 pages | Hardback | 2001 |
| This is a well designed and attractive large format hardback printed on to good quality art paper, its numerous photographs are of excellent quality and a good number of them are in colour. The stories and details of why stations were closed and re-sited are intriguing and varied, as the book explains this process has been going on for years, and the surviving remains and traces are quite extensive, considering the value of space in the Capital. I think my favourite is the Acton Town to South Acton branch, worked at closure in 1959 by a single car unit running to a corrugated iron and timber terminus - Colonel Stephens comes to the Capital. This is a truly fascinating and wonderful book. | ||||
| Model Railway Journal 197 | Wild Swan | |||
| Various | £3.75 | 40 pages | Softback | 2010 |
| Edited by one Martin Welch (who is as delightfully off beam as ever) and featuring a jaw droppingly good representation of the Great Western in South Devon layout of apparently Pendonesque proportion and quality. Peter Denny obituaries plus Debenham finale and and hopper wagons. | ||||
| The Origins Of The LMS In South Wales | Gomer | |||
| Gwyn Brwnant Jones and Dennis Dunstone | £25.00 | 258 pages | Hardback | 1999 |
| A beautifully produced book, recounting and describing how the L&NWR and Midland railways managed to construct and operate a collection of lines, which in combination formed an ambitious incursion through Great Western territory into the mineral wealth of South Wales. The layout and quality of printing are exceptional and individual, and the quality and choice of photographic illustration is also excellent, including quite a lot of colour images. | ||||
| The Titfield Thunderbolt Now and Then | Up Main | |||
| Oliver Fosker | £8.95 | 75 pages | Softback | 2008 |
| Having become interested in the Titfield Thunderbolt, and being further inspired in 2003 by a small "penny dreadful" by one Simon Castens, a surprisingly young man called Oliver Fosker set out to photograph the locations of Titfield with a view to creating a "then and now" compilation. After several field trips and a deal of research, this book is the happy result of his endeavours. Having obtained permission from Studio Canal to use stills from the film, Oliver has largely succeeded in providing a complete series of matched "then and now" views, all produced in colour. I say "surprisingly young" as Oliver was born many years after the end of steam, and yet has applied himself to achieve what no one before has managed for his subject, over 50 years after the event - wonderful. So much for wearisome and trite predictions of the impending demise of our wonderful hobby. | ||||
| Trams in Britain and Ireland | Capital | |||
| Various | £10.95 | 144 pages | Softback | 2002 |
| A very informative and "savvy" illustrated guide to the new generation of tramways, including an introduction which describes the background to tramways' original development, decline and current renaissance. The book is organised alphabetically by location, and potential and future schemes are discussed in detail, including routes and work carried out so far. All well illustrated with clear colour photographs and plans - highly interesting and mildly upbeat. | ||||
| Wilts & Somerset. A Railway Landscape | Millstream | |||
| Duncan Harper | £9.95 | 112 pages | Hardback | 1987 |
| Something quite different; a personal, well researched and unique cameo of railway history in the Somerset and Wiltshire counties. Artistically put together but not at the expense of accuracy, this is a beautiful book which has appeal both to and beyond the railway fraternity. | ||||