 | Whats New ! |  |
| Whats New ! | |
| New books in the Titfield Thunderbolt bookshop. New titles are being added all the time! |
| A Bowaters Album | Noodle Books | |||
| Dave Hammersley | £11.95 | 80 pages | Softback | 2009 |
| A comprehensive and really well illustrated record of the very extensive railway operations that once existed around the paper mill at Sittingbourne. Latterly well known in part as the Sittingbourmne and Kemsley light railway, which has recently survived an attempt at its extinction by developers, the original system was much larger and featured standard as well as narrow gauge railway workings. The best aspect of this book to me is the way in which the author managed to record the railway in its industrial setting, which makes for a much more interesting record than would a loco-centric book. The photographs include a number of good colour shots and at the price this book is good value indeed. | ||||
| British Railway Journal Number 75 | Wild Swan | |||
| Various | £9.95 | 80 pages | Softback | 2010 |
| A pleasingly eclectic collection of subjects. The largest is a comprehensive feature on the Aldeburgh branch complete with scale track plans, an appealing collection of photographs of all stations and joy of joys - pictures of "Sirapite" and Garrett's amazing rail connected works at Leiston. Next is part one of a photographic journey along the Metropolitan's Brill Branch and also featured are Byfield SMJ, a visit to industrial railways near Stoke and the Tylwch Accident revisited. All within laminated boards and printed on art paper, this is a very welcome return to form of a somewhat lapsed periodical. | ||||
| The East Somerset and Cheddar Valley Railways | Lightmoor Press | |||
| Richard Harman | £24.99 | 272 pages | Hardback | 2009 |
| At last, a comprehensively researched, well written and copiously illustrated book that covers the "Strawberry Line". The historical development and relationship with the Somerset and Dorset and its antecedents are very well covered and comprehensive plans, scale track plans and a set of the later signalling diagrams give a very full account of what the line looked like. Operation is also well covered, with train workings, locomotive diagrams and accounts of several incidents and a very good selection of photographs. The very end of operations and the move into preservation are not really covered although the various quarries and their operations are, including the by now vast Foster Yeoman operation at Merehead. | ||||
| Great North Of Scotland Railway Carriages | Lightmoor Press | |||
| Keith Fenwick | £19.95 | 148 pages | Hardback | 2009 |
| The relatively small size of GNoSR coupled with the survival of many of its drawings at its works in Inverurie has meant that this single volume is both comprehensive and superbly illustrated. The need for thrift led to the company somewhat lagging behind its contemporaries although several of its more modern designs saw more than a few yeards in BR service. These two factors make this book a real joy, comprehensive drawings and details of carriage construction from its earliest days, complemented by a large number of good photographs, including some (astonishingly good) examples of preservation. This book has appeal way beyond the adherents of this specific company - a superb bit of work. | ||||
| GWR Goods Services Part 2B Goods Depots and their Operation | Wild Swan | |||
| Tony Atkins | £25.95 | 199 pages | Softback | 2010 |
| This, the third of a series of three, cover goods yards and their operation and is far and away the most pictorial of the series so far. It covers all of the Bristol, Birmingham and Cardiff area depots in detail in addition to Ross on Wye to represent one of the many smaller depots. A final chapter details various improvements across the system and features very good detailed pictures of improving and evolving freight facilities. These include two cracking views of the new (1906) facilities at Bath and loading china clay directly from lorry to wagon at St Austell in 1931, amongst much else. Details of station truck working over several time periods and also direct wagons being run on a regular basis in 1923 further illustrate the complexity of freight operations being run - and all done without computers. | ||||
| GWR Wagons Before 1948 Vol. 2 | Cheona | |||
| R.Tourret | £10.95 | 64 pages | Softback | 2009 |
| Covering diagrams S fish wagons through to diagrams AA (toads) and DD (tank wagons). Broadly speaking, this is all the vans and cattle wagons, covered by photographs with (mostly) extended descriptive captions. As before, photographs cover the vehicles both in company service and in preservation and there are additional pieces on GWR wagon livery and the distinctive "Toad" brake van. | ||||
| A History of The Fullers Earth Mining Industry Around Bath | Lightmoor Press | |||
| Neil Macmillen with Mike Chapman | £15.00 | 152 pages | Softback | 2009 |
| This well produced and illustrated book contains the intriguing and hitherto completely unrecorded history of a once significant industrial activity around Bath. Fuller's earth and its myriad uses are comprehensively explained, a fascinating subject in itself, whilst the many other details of the industry and its development are comprehensively recorded. Ordnance survey map extracts are included to show the exact location of the several sites, all of which are also depicted in a good selection of photographs. Despite the arcane and obscure nature of the subject the author has used his local knowledge, contacts and some surviving records to produce a really interesting and readable account, to which the publishers have done full credit. On a "railway note", this book told me that the Fullers Earth being loaded into box vans in Midford goods yard as frequently recorded by Ivo Peters photographs was destined for the oil refinery at Llandarcy. A "mine" of information and compelling reading for Bathonians on several "levels" - ouch! | ||||
| How To Design A Small Switching Layout | Lance Mindheim | |||
| Lance Mindheim | £15.50 | 70 pages | Softback | 2009 |
| Moving on from his three earlier books, Lance here describes how he goes about designing small switching layouts from the most basic of principles right through to considering the details of operation and construction. I think this is a very refreshing book, to give just one example the author's definition of a good design is one which provides the maximum amount of enjoyment given your circumstances. Maybe that's not too revolutionary a notion but it is typical of the originality and common sense that is displayed throughout this piece of work. As in earlier editions all illustrations are in full colour and encompass both prototype and model shots together with a lot of schematics and diagrams. | ||||
| Industrial Narrow Gauge Album | Plateway Press | |||
| Andrew Neale | £19.95 | 108 pages | Softback | 2009 |
| After years of cajoling Andrew Neale has finally given way and produced a book devoted to pictures and descriptions of the British narrow gauge scene. The title is a rather nice tribute to the late Pat Whitehouse and his seminal book bearing the same title, the first railway book that a young train mad Andrew Neale purchased. The content is excellent,consisting of well reproduced and interesting pictures of a huge variety of subjects with extended and informative captions, all laid out on a regional basis throughout mainland Britain. Steam and internal combustion locomotives are given equal prominence and the photographs tend to concentrate on the locomotive as subject, although there are a few more general views also included. | ||||
| The Kent and East Sussex Railway | Wild Swan | |||
| Brian Hart | £34.95 | 282 pages | Hardback | 2009 |
| A well researched and well written account of the development and operation of Colonel Stephens' favourite railway up until closure by BR in 1961. It is also a beautiful record of an era and world that has entirely vanished - a real light railway publishing tour de force. | ||||
| LMS Lineside Part 2 | Wild Swan | |||
| V.R. Anderson & H.N. Twells | £17.95 | 102 pages | Softback | 2009 |
| This volume covers railway signage, timetables, poster boards platform numbering, seats and trolleys. Numerous photographs from across the whole LMS system and dimensioned drawings of each sort of fitting will enable modelers to detail their miniature worlds in appropriate style, whilst others will be entertained by a slightly "sideways" look at the old LMS. Fittings covered are not just the LMS designs but also those of the constituent companies, even down to a few bits on the S&D. | ||||
| LMS Loco Profiles No. 12 The Diesel Electric Shunters | Wild Swan | |||
| David Hunt and John Jennison | £19.95 | 122 pages | Softback | 2009 |
| A very full description of the origins, development and technical details of the diesel shunting units that the LMS pioneered before the war and which went on to provide the basis for the 950 plus standard diesel shunters of British Railways. Both jackshaft and twin motored varieties are fully covered, comprehensive photographic coverage and numerous plans and scale drawings included. | ||||
| LMS Wagons Volume 1 | Noodle Books | |||
| R.J. Essery | £19.95 | 180 pages | Softback | 2010 |
| A very welcome reprint of one of the OPC "standard works" that so changed the face of railway publishing thirty odd years ago. This has been a consistently hard to find title second hand and contains detailed information on the brake vans, vans and open wagons that formed the backbone of freight operations on the steam railway. The drawings, all reproduced to 4mm scale, are taken from diagram books and so generally show details of bodywork but not underframe detail but the photograhic coverage of each type is very well done. This doesn't match the quality current generation of wagon books by Wild Swan, or example, but is nonetheless an invaluable source for modellers and those interested in the subject and well worth the cover price. | ||||
| Private Owner Wagons An Eighth Collection | Lightmoor Press | |||
| Keith Turton | £19.95 | 168 pages | Hardback | 2009 |
| Enlivened by the opening up of further archives and photographic collections on the subject, this latest volume is easily on a par with the best of those produced so far. In this volume there appear several salt wagons with a low arc roof rather than the normal "peaked" tops and various small stone wagons that operated on the Shropshire and Montgomery, amongst much else. | ||||
| 8 Realistic Track Plans For A Spare Room | Lance Mindheim | |||
| Lance Mindheim | £14.50 | 52 pages | Softback | 2009 |
| Eight innovative schemes for secondary railroad models in a spare room of 12 feet by eleven feet. Using his experience as a practising builder of model railroads for paying customers, Lance can be relied upon to produce truly practicable schemes. Based on diesel powered lines actually "experienced" by the author, the book consists of photographs of the suggested prototype, some model shots and full page scaled and detailed track plans for each scheme. | ||||
| 8 Realistic Track plans For Small Switching Layouts | Lance Mindheim | |||
| Lance Mindheim | £14.50 | 50 pages | Softback | 2009 |
| Eight fairly fully developed schemes for North American switching layouts, either tied directly to individual prototype railroads or composites of several actual railroads. Printed in full colour and full of prototype inspiration, general building tips, model pictures and scale plans of each scheme. The author is a professional builder of benchwork and layouts so knows what he is about. | ||||
| ROD The Railway Operating Division on the Western Front | Sean Tyas | |||
| William A T Aves | £24.95 | 208 pages | Hardback | 2009 |
| As far as I am aware, this is the very first book to tell the detailed story of the enormous standard gauge railway operations mounted by the British in support of the Western Front. Subtitled "The Royal Engineers in France and Belgium 1915-1918", it appears to be a deeply researched account of all aspects of the huge railway operations that fed the devastation of the trenches. I do not mean to detract from the book by the above but I would have liked to have seen a list of references and sources used, although to be fair some references are quoted in the text, and from any point of view this is an informative and well produced book. Broadly split into two, covering military and general railway history and locomotive history, the physical and logistical aspects of the subject are well set against the course of the war and the developments that took place, such as the introduction of tanks and how they were transported. One minor niggle here is that "Warflat" wagons are incorrectly captioned as "Rectanks" but this is a very minor point. The quality of production is excellent and the photographs are very well reproduced to a large size - this is a terrific book. As ever with this subject the statistics and scale of death and destruction wreaked on both sides beggars belief and it is depressing to reflect that even today British soldiers are being killed in Afghanistan in our name and by courtesy of our elected politicians. | ||||
| Scottish Layout Projects | Santona | |||
| Ian Futers | £12.99 | 64 pages | Softback | 2009 |
| Ian Futers, for a while synonymous with circular North British branch line layouts, in this book takes us on a colourful, inspiring and "whistlestop" tour of Scottish layout possibilities. Combining model photography with prototype details and pictures and also featuring full colour and scenically developed track plans, the themes are all pleasing adaptations or combinations of fact and fantasy. I especially liked the sketches of the schemes by Neil Ripley, in some ways a sort of updated and coloured version of Alex Bowie's visualisations in the old "Model Railway News". | ||||
| A Scratchbuilders Guide to Semaphore Signal Construction | Wild Swan | |||
| Peter Squibb | £19.95 | 108 pages | Softback | 2010 |
| A very well illustrated and informed guide to making signals, although I have a feeling that the words GWR ought to have been included somewhere in the title. Peter makes the most magnificent and authentic model signals, the results of meticulous and well observed modelling coupled with a knowledge of the subject gained from a lifetime spent working with the real thing. Subjects are mostly GWR as are a large majority of the photographs in the book, although the modelling techniques shown can obviously apply to any company's signals. There are some very good and original techniques shown, including the construction of lattice posts, and the whole book is beautifully produced and extremely well illustrated, with good use of colour photography for the models. | ||||
| Severn and Wye Railway Volume 4 | Wild Swan | |||
| Ian Pope and Paul Karau | £29.95 | 174 pages | Hardback | 2009 |
| After a very long wait, coverage of the mineral loop - a delightfully obscure piece of freight railway linking Drybrook Road in the north with Tufts Junction in the south. Largely disused from 1940, collieries along the line loom large with extensive photographs showing their features and operation well, less so for the more obscure ones but the whole is nonetheless a great record of a railway backwater from a lost age. | ||||
| Slate Quarry Album | RCL Publications | |||
| Gordon & Ann Hatherill | £24.00 | 188 pages | Softback | 2009 |
| A much enlarged (over twice the size) new edition of a beautiful book, containg many more photographs and much more information than the original, but again providing a striking and memorably well produced testament to the slate industry of North Wales. The main quarries covered are those at Maenofferen, Penrhyn and Aberllefenni although another chapter discusses what is left to see at Dinworic, including some good historic shots. Other chapters describe in detail the physical activities and equipment associated with slate quarrying, quarrying itself, inclines, trackwork and tramways, wagons, locomotives and also Blondins - including a heart stopping account of a final inspection of one of these machines. A final chapter features some walks along tramways and into remote quarry sites, all beautifully photographed. As with the first edition, the quality and detail of Gordon and Ann's writing, sketches, photographs and observations is first class and the standard of presentation and design of the book is fully up to the high standards that we have come to expect from its publisher, the talented Roy Link. | ||||
| Tales of the Old Corris | Gomer | |||
| Gwyn Briwnant Jones | £9.99 | 64 pages | Softback | 2008 |
| Another very appealing collection of previously unpublished photographs and further stories and recollections from the Corris Railway. The author has worked hard and with the help of a number of other individuals, all acknowledged in the book, has assembled another remarkable look back at this narrow gauge backwater, currently undergoing a minor but very pleasing revival. The book is beautifully put together and produced, I think my favourite image is that of driver William Roberts photographed with his son Ieuan on the running plate of No 3 in 1914 - wonderful. | ||||
| The Thakenham Tiles Railway | Graham Lelliot | |||
| Graham Lelliot | £4.99 | 101 pages | Softback | 2009 |
| To A5 format and with a laminated cover featuring several colour views of the subject, this is a wonderfully detailed look at a uniquely simple two foot gauge industrial railway in Sussex. Whilst the photographs within the book are not of the highest quality, they are nonetheless clear and present a remarkably detailed record of the whole line and its operation, which carried on until 1980. There are also detailed site and track plans included, together with details of the railway equipment's preservation and the current conveyor operations at Thakenham. A wonderful little book, full of inspiration for the railway modeller who likes industrial subjects and a credit to its author. | ||||