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What's New ! | 
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What's New ! |
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| New books in the
Titfield Thunderbolt bookshop. New titles are being added all the time! |
| 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. | ||||
| The Culm Valley Light Railway | Oakwood | |||
| Colin G. Maggs | £10.95 | 144 pages | Softback | 2007 |
| An informative and well illustrated history and description of a very minor railway that survived until 1975 when the dairy it served was closed. All eras are covered in a detailed text but the book's main strength lies in its photographic coverage of the line's infrastructure and the rolling stock used, especially in the BR era. There is good coverage of the latter freight only era and the types of diesels used, although classes 22 and 35 have unfortunately managed to elude the book's photographers. | ||||
| Final Years of Isle of Wight Steam | Ian Allan | |||
| Tony Molyneaux and Kevin Robertson | £14.99 | 80 pages | Hardback | 2007 |
| A classic all colour exercise in nostalgia, very good colour shots from the 1950s through to closure of steam on the Ryde to Ventnor, Cowes and Newport lines. The photographs are mainly drawn from previously unpublished transparencies taken by Tony Molyneaux and John Bailey and are all well reproduced and of interest. | ||||
| Freight Traffic on Street Tramways in The British Isles | Adam Gordon | |||
| David Voice | £12.00 | 66 pages | Softback | 2007 |
| An insight into an overlooked aspect of tramway operation, revealing that quite a lot of freight has been caried on British tramways. The relatively well known and "railwaylike" Wisbech and Upwell and Wantage tramways are featured, but there is much else besides in what is a well illustrated and fascinating book. | ||||
| The Jersey Eastern Railway | Oakwood | |||
| Peter Paye | £14.95 | 208 pages | Softback | 2007 |
| A comprehensive history of the commercially standard gauge line on Jersey, opened in 1873 and closed in 1929. Kitson 0-4-2s powered quaint four wheel coaches whilst a pair of Sentinel railcars were also used after 1927 in an attempt to minimise costs. The photographic coverage is good considering how long ago the whole undertaking ceased operation. One minor bibliographic "quibble", I am sure that this is effectively a reprint of an earlier edition produced by the author in a larger format but this book makes no mention of the earlier edition. | ||||
| Narrow Gauge Rolling Stock | Ian Allan | |||
| Desmond Coakham | £14.99 | 96 pages | Softback | 2007 |
| A well written account of the story of rolling stock development on the Irish narrow gauge, which also gives an good overview of how the various lines each developed and inter related. There are a few scale drawings, but the strength of this book is in the very good photographic coverage of the subject. This is a very useful inspiration and source of material for narrow gauge and light railway modelling of any Irish or British subject, both passenger and goods. | ||||
| Rail Atlas Great Britain & Ireland | Ian Allan | |||
| S.K. Baker | £14.99 | 123 pages | Hardback | 2007 |
| The 11th edition of what has become the single most useful reference to the current state of the national rail network. As the author observes in his introduction there have been huge changes in the 30 years since the first edition introduced the concept, all of which can be charted in detail through reference to this book. Actually I have one small carp, in that the Tintern quarry branch ought to be put back on the map, albeit marked "disused". I know this as I have just walked along it, groping my way through an embryonic linear forest! | ||||
| Railway Signalling and Track Plans | Ian Allan | |||
| Bob Essery | £14.99 | 112 pages | Softback | 2007 |
| In what is by now his fourth book in as many years on aspects of prototypical operation, Bob Essery has turned his attention to signalling and track. I like this book much more than the last couple, it is packed with useful reference material backed up with clear and relevant photographs which are themselves much better captioned than those in the previous two volumes. Scale drawings of all sorts of useful fittings are included, together with wider explanations of the development and function of track and signalling. There are not any "track plans" included in the model railway sense although observation of even some of the aspects discussed in this book would improve the realism of many of the model railways one sees at exhibitions. | ||||
| Rickard's Record South Wales Mixed Traffic | Wider View | |||
| Brian J. Miller | £18.00 | 116 pages | Hardback | 2006 |
| Another first class pictorial record of South Wales train workings. Whereas the first two volumes concentrated on the Valleys, this final volume of the late Syd Rickard's photographs has greater coverage of the main lines and traffic other than coal. The photographs are laid out by class of train and as with the previous volumes there is a tremendous wealth of train working and operational information. A final section covers shed scenes and completes what is a very fine collection of images of the steam railway in South Wales. | ||||
| Saga By Rail: Great Britain and The Isle Of Man | Oakwood | |||
| J.I.C. Boyd | £14.95 | 192 pages | Softback | 2007 |
| A really nice pot pourri of well illustrated reminiscences covering James Boyd's encounters with a catholic selection of railways, the majority of which are either narrow gauge or very minor outposts of the standard gauge. From school day encounters with the Somerset and Dorset through youthful wartime encounters with the Snailbeach and Festiniog to delights such as the Welshpool and Llanfair and Corris before preservation and closure. Some fascinating industrial railways are also explored, including an in depth look at the Whittingham Hospital Railway, the Isle of Man, Altrincham gasworks, Eaton Hall, Manchester's Ship Canal railway, the Tanat Valley, Talyllyn and Ravenglass and Eskdale, amongst much else. The photogaphs, mostly taken by the author, are extremely pleasing and cover the subjects very comprehensively. A super book and proving deservedly popular. | ||||
| SE&CR Carriages | Lightmoor Press | |||
| Phil Countache | £19.95 | 128 pages | Hardback | 2007 |
| A collection of 50 types of bogie carriages, complete with photographs, 4mm scale plans and details of build dates, number sequences and histories. The whole is put together by an acknowledged authority on the subject and the quality of both the scale drawings and photographs is excellent. Towards the end of the book there are detailed drawings of bogies, panelling and coach ends, in addition to a tantalisingly brief look at Ashford Works where the carriages were mostly built. As an aside to the subject, the book contains some very nice pre grouping views of a railway that doesn't appear in print too often. | ||||
| 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. | ||||
| This is just a small selection from my stocks, new books are being added all the time, and any railway book which I do not have in stock, but which is in print, can be obtained at no extra cost, usually within the week. |