Military, Military Railways

Colonel David Ronald & Mike Christensen    [Publisher:  Lightmoor  2014]    Hardback    284 pages

The final part of an extraordinarily well detailed and illustrated history of the Army's instructional railway at Longmoor. The last years of the line are a relatively small section in this volume, before the bulk of the book is given over to examining the huge variety of rolling stock that saw operation on the line in some detail, which includes the large number of superannuated items purchased from main line companies. Final chapters cover the appearances of the railway in film, the legacy left behind by the railway and a superb collection of colour photographs of the line and its stock. Thinking back to reading the original David and Charles history of the line it was inconceivable that a book as detailed as these three volumes have been would ever be published, they are all three a real credit to their authors and the publisher.

Mark Smithers    [Publisher:  Pen and Sword  2016]    Hardback    214 pages

A well researched and comprehensive history and description of the Woolwich Arsenal railway network, from inception up until its final demise in 1967. Locomotive matters are particularly wel covered, both standard and narrow gauges, the well produced book including many photographs and scale drawings.

Peter and Charles Berry Ottaway & Jack Tait    [Publisher:  Author  12]    Softback    28 pages

Arising from a discovery of some old negatives in a tin box, this is a poignant collection of images taken on a "Box Brownie" camera by Hubert Berry Ottaway, a serving soldier in the First World War. In addition to pictures of the devastation visited upon the landscape and buildings there are an interesting sequence covering the light railway operations with which Hubert was involved and several views of groups of figures, mostly soldiers. As the publisher and restorer of the images comments, Hubert must have been an accomplished photographer as the images are both well composed and of very good quality considering their age and the circumstances in which they were taken. One small criticism is that not all the photographs are captioned, but in the absence of detailed notes from the photographer and at this distance in time this is hardly surprising.

Nick McCamley    [Publisher:  Folly Books  2014]    Softback    302 pages

Originally published by Leo Cooper in 1998, this was Nick's first book to describe the development of large underground ammunition storage depots before the Second World War. Built on an enormous scale, locally within a network of interconnected Bath stone workings below the Wiltshire countryside, part of which remained in use into the Atomic Age.

L G Warburton    [Publisher:  Crecy  2012]    Hardback    184 pages

An account of the LMS as an organisation as it entered and went through the war, describing the various measures taken, the operational difficulties, new railway works, the damage sustained and the huge build up of men ans materials that preceded D day. Well illustrated throughout and much more than a regurgitation of previous accounts and 1944 booklets, slightly let down by some absolutely howling typos on the rear cover blurb though, as far as I can see the written text is not similarly afflicted.