Railway Book Recommendations

[theblackwatch]

With the festive season almost upon us, and following on from a couple of other recent threads , we thought it an opportune time to start this new thread on railway book recommendations. So here's the place to post about any new books which you may have recently acquired, or perhaps are hoping to get for Christmas - or any other books which you have seen which you think may be of interest to members.

Something I bought not long ago was The Enduring Icon published by Amberley Press & the 125 Group. I've sometimes been disappointed with these Amberley books, as they appear to be little more than someone's photo collection, but this one certainly isn't - there are some are pictures from the early days, extended informative captions, and chapters on the history of the HST wth proper nitty gritty detail.

One which I'm hoping to get as a present is Seventies Spotting Days Along the East Coast Main Line which has just been published by Strathwood - they've done many similar books in this format and for me they just ooze nostalgia. The pictures in these books tend not to just show the loco, but the whole scene, complete with things like station brutes, people wearing dubious fashions (though they were quite trendy then!) and so on.

Over to you...

 

[Ken H]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/British-Railway-Signalling-Geoffrey-Kichenside/dp/0711008981

Really good primer on BR signalling, especially the old pre TCB systems. bit dated now (1978) but absolutely clear.
a few on the second hand markets

 

[trash80]

Some good ones i've got during the last few months (i buy a LOT of books)...

150 Years of the District
The Changing Face of British Railways
Miniature Railway Locomotives and Rolling Stock
Pier Railways & Tramways of the British Isles
Cliff Railways, Lifts and Funiculars
Class 50 Haynes Manual

+ quite a few Middleton Press books which i always love

 

[Busaholic]

Some good ones i've got during the last few months (i buy a LOT of books)...

150 Years of the District
The Changing Face of British Railways
Miniature Railway Locomotives and Rolling Stock
Pier Railways & Tramways of the British Isles
Cliff Railways, Lifts and Funiculars
Class 50 Haynes Manual

+ quite a few Middleton Press books which i always love

You know what you're getting with a Middleton Press book, but I do wish they'd get a bit more up-to-date with layouts, amongst other things. There's a 1970s feel to them and, as a bookseller, I found their titles difficult to sell as an impulse buy, and even sometimes to people who wanted a book on a subject that was covered by Middleton.

 

[bnm]

Parallel Lines by Ian Marchant.

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-...ews/parallel-lines-by-ian-marchant-96116.html

 

[trash80]

You know what you're getting with a Middleton Press book, but I do wish they'd get a bit more up-to-date with layouts, amongst other things. There's a 1970s feel to them and, as a bookseller, I found their titles difficult to sell as an impulse buy, and even sometimes to people who wanted a book on a subject that was covered by Middleton.

They need page numbers for sure, i use them a lot as references for stuff i write. Its interesting how they haven't changed their formula and design from the early 80s!

 

[Keith Jarrett]

With the festive season almost upon us, and following on from a couple of other recent threads , we thought it an opportune time to start this new thread on railway book recommendations. So here's the place to post about any new books which you may have recently acquired, or perhaps are hoping to get for Christmas - or any other books which you have seen which you think may be of interest to members.

Something I bought not long ago was The Enduring Icon published by Amberley Press & the 125 Group. I've sometimes been disappointed with these Amberley books, as they appear to be little more than someone's photo collection, but this one certainly isn't - there are some are pictures from the early days, extended informative captions, and chapters on the history of the HST wth proper nitty gritty detail.

One which I'm hoping to get as a present is Seventies Spotting Days Along the East Coast Main Line which has just been published by Strathwood - they've done many similar books in this format and for me they just ooze nostalgia. The pictures in these books tend not to just show the loco, but the whole scene, complete with things like station brutes, people wearing dubious fashions (though they were quite trendy then!) and so on.

Over to you...

Agree that Amberley can be a bit hit and miss. Some are just pure pulp fiction and basically cr@p but others are quite good - thinking the series on Industrial Locos for example

Be aware that the latest Strathwood D&E titles are a limited print run of 500 and some are already sold out at the publisher although at the time of writing I still have copies of them all for sale.

You know what you're getting with a Middleton Press book, but I do wish they'd get a bit more up-to-date with layouts, amongst other things. There's a 1970s feel to them and, as a bookseller, I found their titles difficult to sell as an impulse buy, and even sometimes to people who wanted a book on a subject that was covered by Middleton.

As a book seller, I cannot shift Middletons at the full cover price of £18-95 but good quality secondhand at £9 a go seem to sell fairly well in comparison

 

[47403]

Nicholas Whittakers Platform Souls is a great read, as are Parallel Lines and Bill Alcocks, A Locoman's Log.

 

[Busaholic]

Agree that Amberley can be a bit hit and miss. Some are just pure pulp fiction and basically cr@p but others are quite good - thinking the series on Industrial Locos for example

Be aware that the latest Strathwood D&E titles are a limited print run of 500 and some are already sold out at the publisher although at the time of writing I still have copies of them all for sale.



As a book seller, I cannot shift Middletons at the full cover price of £18-95 but good quality secondhand at £9 a go seem to sell fairly well in comparison

Amberley's photo reproduction tends to be poor: the word 'flat' comes to mind.
Interesting what you say about Middleton: I never sold secondhand books, so no personal experience.

 

[gazthomas]

Some good ones i've got during the last few months (i buy a LOT of books)...

150 Years of the District
The Changing Face of British Railways
Miniature Railway Locomotives and Rolling Stock
Pier Railways & Tramways of the British Isles
Cliff Railways, Lifts and Funiculars
Class 50 Haynes Manual

+ quite a few Middleton Press books which i always love

I had low expectations of the Class 50 Haynes Manual, having picked it up in The Works for just £6 but I found it to be superb book, with great technical detail as well as lighter topics. My railway book of the year

 

[Islineclear3_1]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/British-Railway-Signalling-Geoffrey-Kichenside/dp/0711008981

Really good primer on BR signalling, especially the old pre TCB systems. bit dated now (1978) but absolutely clear.
a few on the second hand markets

I'm actually looking for the second edition of this brilliant book (?yellow bound) but can't seem to find it anywhere on the second-hand market. Of course, I'll keep looking but if anyone has one to sell, I would be grateful for a PM

I already have the 1st, 3rd and 4th editions....

 

[theblackwatch]

Amberley's photo reproduction tends to be poor: the word 'flat' comes to mind.
Interesting what you say about Middleton: I never sold secondhand books, so no personal experience.

I got another Amberley book at Xmas - it was one with nice varied content and meaty captions, but I have to agree with many of the pictures being flat. It's not something I considered with the HST book though. The other thing with the book I got ("British Rail in the 1908s and 1990s - Diesel Locomotives and DMUs) was the poor cropping of some photos - I'm assuming it's not what the photographer supplied! Buffers or the back end of a loco chopped off on a number of occasions. If I'd been the author, I'd have been a bit miffed.

I had low expectations of the Class 50 Haynes Manual, having picked it up in The Works for just £6 but I found it to be superb book, with great technical detail as well as lighter topics. My railway book of the year

That book is one I got last year, and I too thought it was excellent. Bizarrely, it appeared in the £6 bucket at The Works within weeks of it being published - I've no idea why!

 

[Cambus731]

I agree about Parallel Lines by Ian Marchant. it is an excellent read. I found a copy by accident in a bookshop in Inverness back in August and I devoured it in a matter of a few days

 

[krus_aragon]

The Works have long since branched out of the end-of-line/can't-sell remaindered books market: they now comission prints and reprints themselves from Chinese printers, especially their kids titles. (Sometimes they'll sell the same cookery book in several different bindings over the years, which can get confusing.)

In addition to this, they will bulk-buy certain popular titles from publishers at a discount, in the same manner as supermarkets. (The publisher sells them outright instead of on consignment: most bookstores can return unsold books to the publisher for credit.)

And finally, there's the publishers' unsold leftovers or "remainders", which are distributed to various Works branches. This is where the rummager's gems hide, and when they're gone, they're gone.

 

[trash80]

intu Derby's branch of the Works has loads of recently published Haynes books for 6 squids, including the Boeing 707 one i'd bought full price just a few months before :P

Amberley books i find hit and miss but i like them when they cover an unusual topic like minature railways. Thats also why i like Middleton Press books, covering obscure old stations.

 

[theblackwatch]

One book some of us ended up discussing on Saturday while sat on a railtour was the 'Diesel & Electric Loco Register' by Platform 5. This was an excellent publication when the first edition came out in the 1980s, being an all-time numbers book but the latest versionis sadly lacking in that all the loco disposals, one of the main purposes of the book, have been removed and locos are merely listed as 'scrapped'. A far better book in the opinion of those of us who were discussing it was the Loco Fleet Shop book on the subject which is over £5 less and has more detail - see https://locofleetshop.co.uk/product/loco-fleet-list-ten/ . I've got a copy myself and although I've found a couple of errors (which I'm sure all books on this subject have) it seems pretty accurate.

 

[swt class 450]

I got a copy of this book recently by John Balmforth detailing the history of South West Trains from privatisation to recent times.

Here is the link to it on Amazon for purchase:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/South-West-Trains-John-Balmforth/dp/0711034079

I would definitely recommended this one. Especially if you are interested in the more modern recent history of our railways as well. It is well worth the money.