FWIW: my own interests outside railways are Biblical study/church history and there are certainly writers who cross over from academic (measured in footnotes per page!) to accessible - NT aka Tom Wright and Diarmid McCulloch are example (sorry if those names mean nothing).
I've heard of both those people.

One of the more surreal things I've done in my life is singing Blaydon Races in a large group led by Tom Wright....