The complete steam news magazine

Off the shelf: 9 June 2011

This month's book reviews by Heritage Railway.

From models to the real thing, you’ll find much to inspire you in our selection of good reads & DVDs.

If you have a title you'd like us to review, please drop the HR team a line from our contact page.

Industrial Railways & Locomotives of Essex/Lincolnshire & Rutland

Compiled by Robin Waywell and Frank Jux/Philip J Ashworth, Ian Bendall and Ken Plant (softbacks, Industrial Railway Society, 24 Dulverton Road, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire LE13 0SF, 327pp/320pp, both plus photographic sections £23.95/£21.95, plus £3.65 p&p, ISBN 1901 556 63-6/978 901556 63 5).

Here are the long-awaited IRS County Handbooks to what is in in effect three counties.

Two aspects amaze immediately: the sheer depth of research to try to obtain definitive volumes and the reminder of the vast number of industrial locations big and small, prominent and obscure, that had their own railway systems, from giant quarry and steelworks down to farm lines.

Completeness is not the word. Preservation sites both past and present are listed, even when it is just a case of an owner with one engine stored in a shed out of sight and otherwise out of mind.

The entries are listed in alphabetical order, with a description of each site followed by a listing of the locomotives. Very usefully, if you are just looking for a locomotive in particular, there is a separate listing of them under makers.

Both books have a rear section packed with both black and white and colour photographs from both the past and the present day.

No doubt there will the odd locomotive to ‘escape the net’ of the compilers, but after studying these books, I would like to see one try!

Years of research, and the end products are brilliant.