Great Western
Items selected: Total cost:Leslie Price [Publisher: Transport Treasury 2020] Hardback 160 pages
Gerry Beale [Publisher: Wild Swan 2016] Hardback 154 pages
An intimate portrayal of a late surviving Great Western branch line, from its inception through to the early diesel era. Gerry knew the line well, having been introduced to it early in life through his father's interest, and this book is the culmination of years of interest and study. The photographic coverage is extensive, covering the line itself, stations, rolling stock and the various branch operations over the years, including a good number of shots of the DMUs when they were first introduced. A beautiful book depicting a most attractive branch line railway in its heyday, the level of service offered and evident order and continuity marking a stark contrast to today's World in Bridport and elsewhere.
Neil Parkhouse [Publisher: Lightmoor 2015] Hardback 328 pages
A very welcome reprint of Neil Parkhouse's second all colour book covering the railway lines in Gloucestershire. Every bit as impressive as the first volume, this is an astonishingly good collection, a huge number and variety of images recording the railway lines together with the industries that they served. Being colour, it is true that most images are relatively late in the history of the subjects covered, but they are still full of interest, not least to those of us with an interest in the smaller diesel hydraulics, extensively used in the Forest as this wonderful book shows. That said, there is a rare image of Drybrook Halt dating from 1920 and a lot of images depictng earlier steam operations. In summary, this is a truly magnificent book, one that I will be adding to my own bookshelf and which I will spend happy hours studying for years to come I am sure, thank you to both Neil and Ian for producing it.
Tony Atkins [Publisher: Crecy 2014] Softback 224 pages
Tony Atkins continues his account of Great Western Goods services published in three volumes by Wild Swan with this final book on the shipping and dockyard aspects of the story. After a general introduction, the book explores dock locations in some detail using photographs and location and track plans, although the coverage is not complete on either count - unsurprising at this remove in time I guess. Some places are very well covered, for example Fowey, but I was a bit disappointed by the section on Bristol. Overall, and I apologise to the publisher for saying this, it is a pity that the author could not have completed the series with Wild Swan, although I appreciate that doing so would probably have meant a further wait before this aspect was covered.
Kevin Robertson [Publisher: Crecy 2014] Softback 120 pages
A collection of images recorded by Edward Wallis, who worked for the signal department of the LB&SC and then Southern Railway until his untimely death in service in 1935. This book follows on from the earlier "Southern Infrastructure" (which is to be followed by a second later this year) and contains an unusual set of views, concentrating on signalling installations and featuring numerous less visited locations. There are also lots of unfamiliar looking views of better known places owing to the fact that much rebuilding took place after these images were recorded but well before the War. I would say that pretty much every image is of higher than average interest, two highlights for me were the unusual view of Lambourn station throat and looking eastwards through Dunkerton station after the signalling had been disconnected. This is a truly absorbing collection of images and I think anyone with more than a passing interest in the subject will find images in here that will surprise and delight in equal measure.
Kevin McCormack [Publisher: Capital 2018] Hardback 128 pages
A glorious book with a God awful cover, which makes it look like the worst kind of dumbed down "boys book of the Great Western" production, which it most definitely is not. It is inside the covers a stylish and striking account and record of one of the Twentieth Century's most successful railway organisations, whose story is told broadly chronologically but also with "specialist" aspects highlighted. None of which sounds especially good, but it is the quality of the images that will grab you, mainly colour, all incredibly well reproduced and including a large number of "different" loking views. To give examples of just two aspects, the author himself took some wonderful shots of station buildings and infrastructure which are reproduced here, and there are several very good colour photographs of carriage stock, including two superb shots showing a super saloon and Centenary brake third in BR maroon. This is a really good book which contains much to like and admire, don't be put off by my description of the cover!
Tony Atkins [Publisher: Crecy 2019] Hardback 208 pages
The final part of the series of books that has covered Great Western Railway freight services in fine detail. This last volume is arguably the most appealing, covering as it does the "motorised era" from around the First World War up until just before Nationalisation. The photographic coverage is terrific and the variety of vehicle amazing, from really primitive looking contraptions up to quite modern looking machines. Great detail for modellers in addition to being a fascinating record of how physical distribution "grew up" ahead of the rationalisation and moves to road transport after the war.
Tony Atkins [Publisher: Crecy 2016] Hardback 136 pages
The first of two volumes describing the working of freight on the Great Western. With extensive and relevant photographs and a lot of detailed information this is a very worthwhile book on its subject. These two books effectively follow the GWR Goods Service books produced by Wild Swan, and I believe will bring the story more or less up to its completion.
H. W. Knott [Publisher: Great Western Study Group 2021] Softback 27 pages
An A5 sized booklet with card covers, being a transcript of a paper given at a meeting of the Swindon Engineering Society at the Mechanic's Institute on the 24th February 1931 by member H W Knott. A complete account of the day to day work of a running shed on the GWR, the duties of different grades of staff, repair procedures further detailed information, together with an interesting "question and answer" session at the end of the meeting.
Ian Pope [Publisher: Lightmoor 2019] Hardback 208 pages
Starting with a reprise of Lydney Yard from part one to share some newly found images, this last volume details the history of the line and canal down to Lydney Docks, being consecutively page numbered to match the earlier volumes produced by Wild Swan. Very well illustrated and full of fascinating detail, Ian has set the cover to match the style of the earlier volumes and is also working on a reprint of volume three for Wild Swan books which should be available in early 2020.
Neil Parkhouse [Publisher: Lightmoor 2018] Softback 48 pages
Slim but beautiful, all the new colour images and a few minor corrections that have gone into the new edition of the main book, this enabling the very many original purchasers to enjoy new material without buying a whole second edition. Without exception all of the images are full of interest and atmosphere, and quite a few are just achingly beautiful.
Tim Maddocks and John Stretton [Publisher: Silver Link 2019] Softback 128 pages
Over 200 photographs that take a nostalgic and comparative look at the two Great Western Routes heading west from Swindon. The great strength of this book is its excellent coverage of the recent engineering changes that have place along the routes in preparation for electrification, which was subsequently and partially cancelled. This has proved to be one of the great mysteries of current times to my way of thinking, but I don't think that anyone is blaming the Russians for it(!)
Neil Parkhouse [Publisher: Lightmoor 2018] Hardback 328 pages
A second and enlarged edition of an epic of a book, a phenomenal collection of all colour images illustrating the railways of Gloucestershire, the first of a planned series of eight. This volume covers Gloucester West and Llanthony lines out as far as Chepstow in the south to Monmouth, Ross and Hereford in the north. The Wye Valley branch is covered and although the vast majority of this book is steam age there are some diesel pictures, including some terrific Hymek shots at Tintern Quarry and an 03 shunting on the Llanthony branch. The infrastructure and surroundings are very well covered, images are sourced from a wide variety of sources as explained in the foreword and have benefitted from Internet auction site purchases. This is a really interesting and monumentally impressive collection of images, nicely assembled into an attractive book and still extraordinarily good value at the slightly increased price that this enlarged and revised edition is.
Andrew Malthouse and Kevin Robertson [Publisher: Transport Treasury 2021] Softback 80 pages
An interesting mix of articles and features covering the "old company" including a colour feature on Hydraulics, an account od a milk train from Dick Riley, a nice feature on Moretonhampstead from Gerry Beale, wagon pooling on the GWR before the War, the pannier tanks on the Dornoch Branch, and much more besides. All illustrated with great images from the Transport Treasury.