Reviews

By John Hunt and James Shuttleworth (hardback, The Nostalgia Collection, The Trundle, Ringstead Road, Great Addington, Kettering, Northants NN14 4BW, tel: 01536 330588, 208pp, £45, ISBN 978 1 85794 536 2). When it comes to albums of quality railway photography, it does not and cannot get any better than this. The West Highland Extension from…

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By Ron Strutt (hardback, Crecy, 208pp, £24.95, ISBN 978 1 90932 847 1). Here is a railway book that in so many ways is unlike anything that has gone before. It is now nearly 70 years since the Westerham branch in West Kent closed, and enthusiasts banded together to try to save it, firstly as…

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By Nigel Welbourn (hardback, Crecy, 224pp, £25, ISBN 978 0 66093, 691 6). Here is a magnificent volume that will both inspire exploratory visits to half-forgotten locations and many hours browsing through it. The author has previously written 15 volumes in his Lost Lines series, each covering a different region. This one takes a national…

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By Tony Nicholson (hardback, Crecy, 192pp, £45, ISBN 978 0 71103 873 8). Over the years there have been many albums published of historical photographs of the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway, such is the interest and romantic appeal that the legendary 2ft gauge line generates. However, here is the ultimate volume. A fairly detailed and…

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By David John Hindle (hardback, Silver Link, 160pp, £25, ISBN 978 1 85794 497 6) Covering the Furness Railway route from Carnforth via Barrow-in-Furness to Workington, this book contains the expected history and description of the route, but as the title suggests it is much more than that. It not only gives railway enthusiasts and…

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By Les Wheeler, softback, Grange Publications & Les Wheeler, Hawthorn Terrace, Shilbottle, NE66 2XA 312pp, £19.99, ISBN 9 780995 554818. There have been many books written by enthusiasts detailing their travels in pursuit of BR steam traction over its final few years in the 1960s. The author of this sizeable and well-illustrated volume was resident…

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By Derek Hayes (hardback, The Times/Harper Collins, 272pp, £30, ISBN 978 0 00 824948 9) While Britain did not invent the railway concept – that has been attributed to ancient Greek drama, when grooves were cut into stage floors to facilitate the moving of scenery on wheels – it gave the world the self-propelled railway…

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By Peter Best, Ian Gaylor and Stephen Phillips, edited by Tony Nicholson (softback, The 762 Club, www.lynton-rail.co.uk/shop £9.95 plus £2.50 p&p) As highlighted in our feature on pages 70-72, one of the landmark events of this year was the launch of the £650,000 near-replica Baldwin 2-4-2T Lyn at the hugely-successful Lynton & Barnstaple Railway’s autumn…

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