The complete steam news magazine

Off the shelf: 8 July 2010

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.

We have teamed up with Amazon UK to allow you to purchase many of them on-line at reduced prices.

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

Eastern Steam Journey Vol II

By Rex Conway
(hardback, The History Press, 154pp, £19.99, ISBN 978 0 7524 5492 4).

If you like LNER Pacifics, you’ll like this latest offering from Bristol ex-newspaper photographer Rex Conway, featuring the East Coast Main Line between Peterborough to Newcastle, plus a number of routes east and west.

There are A4s everywhere, writes Geoff Courtney, as well as A1s, A2s and A3s. At the head of crack expresses, simmering on shed, or waiting for the off at stations, the flagship designs of Gresley, Thompson and Peppercorn leap from page after page.

There’s even long-time Haymarket (64B) resident No 60100 Spearmint – one of a handful of A3s I failed to ‘cop’ – on a coal train at West Hartlepool, of all places, looking immaculate and so possibly recently ex-works and running-in. What a coup that must have been for the local trainspotters, the lucky devils.

Another class to feature prominently is the much-loved D49 ‘Hunt’ class, photographed in such familiar territory as Selby, York, Starbeck shed (50D), Malton, Whitby, and Scarborough.

But this steam journey isn’t solely about the eye-catching fast-track glamour boys, for the north-east railway scene was much more besides. So you’ll find an 01 class 2-8-0 at Immingham – an ungainly hippo compared with the A4 cheetah – a hulking A8 class 4-6-2T on shed at Whitby (50G) with the town’s clifftop 13th-century ruined abbey a distant backcloth, and petite J21s at Darlington, Penrith and Tebay.

Rural scenes include aged Class G5 0-4-4T No 67258 running round its equally ancient solitary coach at Middleton-in-Teesdale at the end of the branch from Barnard Castle, and fellow class member No 67315 at Alston, the terminus of a branch from Haltwhistle in an area popular with hill walkers.

Perhaps the most poignant photograph is not of a steam locomotive, but of a group of express headboards hanging on the outside wall of what appears to be a nondescript wooden bike shed at Grantham (35B) depot. They are for ‘The Flying Scotsman,’ ‘The Aberdonian’ and ‘The Tynesider.’

Oh, what memories they bring flooding back, as indeed do all Rex’s series of steam journeys. Happy, carefree, and utterly innocent days.

The West Somerset Railway Revisited

By Don Bishop
(hardback, Halsgrove Publishing, 144pp, £16.99, ISBN 978 1 84114 918 9).

As highlighted in our history of preservation in this issue, the West Somerset Railway started in 1976 with a comparative whimper rather than a bang, with industrial saddle tanks hauling DMU trailers. Today it is the longest standard gauge heritage railway in Britain and one of the finest in the world.

It is also a perfect showcase not only for the fleet of ex-main line steam locomotives based there but, as highlighted in our news section this month, Western Region diesel hydraulic traction.

Long time supporter and volunteer Don Bishop, whose superb views of the line regularly appear in Heritage Railway, had now produced this splendid portrait of the WSR in all seasons, as a follow-up from his first volume on the line for the same publisher five years ago.

At this price it is a steal, packed from start to finish with inspirational views and stunning landscapes. All the star visitors of recent years such as A1 No 60163 Tornado, LMS No 6100 Royal Scot, A4 No 60019 Bittern, J15 No 65462 and ‘Black Five’ No 45110, are there alongside the familiar home-based engines.

There is much more than the hydraulics to appeal to modern traction followers too.

The progress of the railway is marked by the inclusion of a chapter on through trains, main line charters which use the resignalled Norton Fitzwarren Junction to the great benefit of the local economy. Thus we see large prairie No 4160 piloting the Severn Valley’s No 7802 Bradley Manor at Churchlands, and No 6024 King Edward I climbing the grade at Kennsford with a Gloucester to Minehead charter.

The photography is top class and the presentation equally so.

An Illustrated History of the Snowdon Mountain Railway

By Peter Johnson
(hardback, Oxford Publishing Company/Ian Allan, 128pp, £19.99, ISBN 978 0 86093 631 2).

The Snowdon Mountain Railway remains an enigma in the heritage portfolio. The only rack railway of its kind in Britain, it has never ‘passed into preservation’ as such, and has from the start been run commercially to take visitors to the top of the highest mountain in Wales. The heritage factor comes in with the retention of the steam locomotives that appeared when the line opened in 1895, despite the fact that diesel alternatives have by now long since been available.

Peter Johnson is one of Britain’s top narrow gauge writers and after having unearthed much new material about this unique line, has produced a definitive biography, packed with both colour and black-and-white pictures, including that off the ill-fated No 1 Ladas, used for construction trains before it spectacularly crashed on the Easter Monday opening day.

The story is brought up to date with the opening of the new Hafod Eryri summit station and visitor centre.

Very readable and extremely informative, well presented with decent reproduction, it cannot be but highly recommended.

The Iron Sherpa:

Darjeeeling and its Remarkable Railway Vol 2 – route, Locomotives & Rolling Stock by Terry Martin
(hardback, RailRomances, PO Box 85, Chester CH4 9ZH, available direct at £56 plus £12 post/packing (UK), 384pp, ISBN: 978 1 900622 12 7).

It will remain a permanent matter of sadness that, as we reported in issue 137, the author of this magnificent volume died before he could see it in print.

The three Darjeeling Himalayan Railway volumes by Terry Martin and published by Rail Romances remain at the high end of railway publishing, firstly through their presentation, and secondly, and more importantly, through the breadth of knowledge and insight and extent of pictures that they contain.

The Iron Sherpa Vol 2 is a further companion to his Halfway to Heaven, which is now very much a collectors’ item.

The new volume covers a journey up the line, including the Raipur Forest Tramway and Tipong Colliery Railway illustrated throughout in colour with 390 photographs and with detailed maps and station layouts, building drawings, full details of locomotives and rolling stock, backed up by 150 scale drawings and details of the operation of the line.

In so many ways, the DHR is a British heritage railway by the backdoor, still using Manchester-built Sharp Stewart B class locomotives.

Those who have visited the line will quickly see only too well that this latest addition does full justice to the majestic scenery and atmosphere of the British-built line. Those who have not been – this is the closest you will ever get to experiencing it through print.

Terry died on 29 April after a long illness.

Born on 12 November 1946 in Lambeth, he had travelled since he was a boy, and by his early teens was familiar with narrow gauge railways in Austria, France and Spain.

Later, on a second-hand motorbike, he discovered narrow gauge lines in East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.

He first visited India in the company of fellow bikers and rode across the Himalayas on the highest motorable road in the world, and the DHR came to his serious attention.

Exhaustive research resulted in 200 publication of Halfway to Heaven after he met John Milner, of RailRomances Publishing.

The publication of that presentation volume opened the door to a wealth of memories from people who had first-hand knowledge of the line. He continued his exhaustive research, digging up a huge quantities of material from long-forgotten collections and distant archives to produce the two volumes of The Iron Sherpa.

Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the Governor of Bengal and grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, told Terry: “Darjeeling and the DHR owe you great thanks.”

Volume 1 is still available from the above address at £49.

For more reviews, see this months issue, available to buy online!