London Railways, London Transport

Ken Garland    [Publisher:  Capital  1994]    Hardback    80 pages

Fully illustrated with colour in a large format, this is a striking book which graphically illustrates the development of Harry Beck's diagrammatic map of the Underground. Whilst Beck established the familiar style, the last true map of his was usurped by an inferior imitator from April 1960. Thereafter Beck was effectively "frozen out" of the map's development and arguably not given sufficient credit for his development. Set against the trials and tribulations of the Underground's development and written by someone who enjoyed a long first hand acquiantance with Beck, this is a fascinating and even slightly sad story.

J. Allan and A. Murrray    [Publisher:  Lightmoor  2020]    Hardback    208 pages

A very thorough pictorial record and survey of the myriad lines, depots and stations which operated in London under the aegis of the London Midland Region. The photographs are very well done and cover a wide variety of subjects, predominantly in the late steam era but with a significant number of pre TOPS diesel and electric subjects too. The book is very effectively arranged by stations, routes and sheds.

Matthew Wharmby and R.C. Riley    [Publisher:  Ian Allan  2013]    Hardback    96 pages

The title is a bit of a misnomer, as this is actually a collection of the late Dick Riley's colour photographs of London Transport buses, centred around his home location of Beckenham. This is a very stylish production and the captions are detailed and offer a lot of information to accompany the universally good photographs. One slight quibble is the "style over substance" of light grey text over white on the introduction and chapter headings, all but unreadable but thankfully the captions are clearly printed in black typeface, all in all a very nice book despite the foregoing.

J.E. Connor    [Publisher:  Capital  2001]    Softback    128 pages

A new softback edition of a terrific book, describing the many and varied underground stations thjat have become disused over the years. The stories and details of why stations were closed and re-sited are intriguing and varied, and as the book explains this process has been going on for years The surviving remains and traces are quite extensive, especially considering the value of space in the Capital. I think my favourite is the Acton Town to South Acton branch, worked at closure in 1959 by a single car unit running to a corrugated iron and timber terminus - Colonel Stephens comes to the Capital. A truly fascinating and wonderful book.

Jonathan Riddell    [Publisher:  Capital  1998]    Hardback    96 pages

Stylishly produced in full colour, this book is a joyful reminder of the poster art used by London Transport in order to generate some traffic for a complex railway system during its quieter moments, ie weekends and evenings. The subjects are wide ranging from the Boat Race to the Imperial War Museum, and include examples of posters by Edward Bawden, who did the artwork for the "Titfield Thunderbolt".

John Glover    [Publisher:  Transport Treasury  2021]    Softback    112 pages

This is an interesting collection of good quality black and white images, compiled by the author from the archive of photographs taken by Alan A Jackson between 1953 and 1973. Both infrastructure and trains themselves are well covered, but what I especially like is that many of the pictures are thoughtfully composed to include people in them, The captions are all very informative and the whole thing taken together is really rather wonderful.

Andrew Emmerson    [Publisher:  Capital  2013]    Softback    84 pages

An attractively produced and informative all colour book that describes the stock currently running on London's dense network of railways above and below ground. As the author explains this is a time of massive upgrading and investment, and the book reflects this well with lots of stylish new stock appearing alongside more familiar looking trains. The book includes short sections on both "preserved" and engineers stock, and includes full listings of all stock.