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What's New ! | 
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What's New ! |
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| New books in the
Titfield Thunderbolt bookshop. New titles are being added all the time! |
| Coronation Scot | Edward Talbot | |||
| Edward Talbot | £15.00 | 102 pages | Softback | 2008 |
| A very wecome reprint in softback format of a stylish book recording in words and pictures the brief but spectacular era of streamlined trains on the LMS. The author went to great lengths to include really excellent photographs, locomotive portraits and details, carriages (exteriors and interiors), the American tour, and views of construction, and produced a singular and very appealing book. There are also striking paintings of the trains reproduced in full colour together with its stylish publicity material all of which is printed on to quality art paper. An unusually captivating railway book which I am still very tempted to add to my collection, despite its having nothing to do with the Somerset and Dorset or light railways - highly recommended. | ||||
| The Jersey Eastern Railway | Oakwood | |||
| Peter Paye | £14.95 | 208 pages | Softback | 2007 |
| Given that this railway closed as long ago as 1929, this book is a remarkably comprehensive history and account of this individual line. Built to standard gauge, and employing quaint Kitson built 2-4-0 tank engines and antiquated coaches, the railway was profitable in its day before bus competition led to liquidation and final demise. This is an Oakwood reprint of the 1999 book published by the author, a fact which is strangely not mentioned in the 2007 book. | ||||
| Narrow Gauge at War | Plateway Press | |||
| Keith Taylorson | £9.95 | 56 pages | Softback | 2008 |
| A third reprinting for this very popular and morbidly fascinating collection of photographs, the story of narrow gauge railways on the Western Front. This edition contains some updated and corrected appendices but is otherwise identical to the earlier print runs. Actually the interest contained in this book goes way beyond the morbid, it's just that the I am endlessly haunted by the monstrosity of the "war to end all wars" and the subsequent planting of the seeds of World War Two by the victorious bloody politicians. Are we/they any better these days? | ||||
| North Devon Clay The story of an industry and its railways | Twelveheads | |||
| Michael Messenger | £21.00 | 120 pages | Hardback | 2007 |
| A superb book, detailing all aspects of the North Devon ball clay industry and the railways that served it. Starting with the development of the clay industry at Meeth the book goes on to describe the history of the narrow gauge Torrington and Marland Railway, including detailed chapters covering both its rolling stock and innovative engineer. John Barraclough Fell. The subsequent standard gauge line is then described in detail with final chapters covering the later clay workings at Meeth and its railway stock. As with all Twelveheads books the presentation and quality of both research and writing is first class. What sets this book apart though is the quality and breadth of photographic coverage, quite superb and covering all eras. My personal favourites are generally those shots taken by the author himself, a fantastic record of heath robinson operations on a delightfuly ramshackle looking system. Owners of the earlier edition of this book will definitely want this new one, it adds a great deal and really is something of a bargain at the price asked. | ||||
| Railway Modelling the Realistic Way | Haynes Publishing | |||
| Iain Rice | £19.99 | 352 pages | Hardback | 2007 |
| Published at the end of 2007, this is a very worthy successor to Norman Simmons widely read and published "textbook" to small scale railway modelling. I very much like the Iain's writing style, notwithstanding a tad too many tads, and have thoroughly enjoyed reading through this book. A self confessed member of the finescale movement, I think Iain gives us a very cogent and intelligent analysis of where UK railway modelling is and how it got there together with a great deal of practical information and advice on how to do it. Other comments are that it inevitably majors on 4mm scale and tends to cover the historic/steam era railway, although definitely not to the exclusion of other areas. Overall this is a really good read and an interesting summary of UK railway modelling in the early 21st Century. | ||||
| The Railway Products of Baguley Drewry and its Predecessors. | IRS | |||
| Allen Civil and Roy Etherington | £29.99 | 372 pages | Hardback | 2008 |
| Once in a while the Industrial Railway Society excel themselves by producing an exceptionally good book - this is one of them. The story of two companies, their relationship to one another, and the very many products that they produced. Complete with works lists and comprehensive historical details, as we have come to expect from the IRS, it is the quality of presentation coupled with the detailed photographs of the distinctive and often quirky products of particularly Baguley that set this book apart. Although there are no scale drawings of stock, the information given together with very detailed photographs will make modelling many of these vehicles easier than ever before. Modelling apart it is a fascinating account of a distinctive part of the once great British engineering industry. Produced in a large format and with 370 odd pages on quality art paper this is also very good value, in my opinion. | ||||
| Return To Pwllheli Please | Foxline | |||
| Derek J. Lowe | £17.95 | 120 pages | Softback | 2008 |
| A return photographic journey along the Cambrain Coast route from Machynlleth to Pwllheli. Photographs cover the 1950s up to the early 1970s and concentrate on steam workings. Fully up to the high standards of earlier volumes produced by Greg Fox and a delightful and informative record of a magical railway journey that can still be taken, albeit by "Sprinter". | ||||
| The Snailbeach District Railways | IRS | |||
| Eric S. Tonks | £6.95 | 52 pages | Softback | 2007 |
| A straight reprint to a good standard on quality art paper of the late Eric Tonks' 1974 book, long unavailable to purchase. A well written and illustrated account of an industrial narrow gauge line in Shropshire, complete with track diagrams and scale drawings of stock and locomotives. | ||||
| Somerset Steam | Capital | |||
| Michael Welch | £8.95 | 84 pages | Softback | 2008 |
| Michael Welch, railway picture editor par excellence, has widened his circle of contacts well enough to produce another top quality selection of all colour images. It must be very dificult at this remove, especially given the relative scarcity of colour material, to produce unhackneyed collections, but Michael Welch has done it again. Despite some recourse to the well known "Colour Rail" collection of images we are presented with many views that are refreshingly different, including more than a few absolute gems - my favourite perhaps being an unusual view of shunting freight at Radstock West in 1962. | ||||
| This is just a small selection from my stocks, new books are being added all the time, and any railway book which I do not have in stock, but which is in print, can be obtained at no extra cost, usually within the week. |