Narrow Gauge Wales

J.R. Thomas & D.W. Southern    [Publisher:  Oakwood  2013]    Softback    72 pages

A pleasing survey of the various industrial railways both narrow and standard gauge that existed around Llangollen, mainly involving quarrying operations of one sort or another. Well illustrated with photographs and including several detail and location maps.

Donald Peddie    [Publisher:  Lightmoor  2014]    Softback    96 pages

A very pleasing photographic tour of the railways of North Wales, predominantly the narrow gauge systems, early preservation and the last lingering commercial quarry related operations, but also including standard gauge. All photographs were taken by the late Ian Peddie, many from on railway property, and the captions written by his son Donald draw upon extensive notes made at the time.

Michael Messenger    [Publisher:  Twelveheads  2008]    Softback    96 pages

A collection of Michael Messenger's own photographs recording the surviving slate quarries in the counties of Caernarfon and Merioneth in their last years of operation. A large proportion of these atmospheric images are in colour and nearly all have never been seen in print before. Steam engines, industrial diesels, double flanged wheels and archaic work practices are all brought back to life in a wonderfully browse-able book, which is fully up to the high expectations that this quality publisher has created with its wonderful books.

John Idris Jones    [Publisher:  Amberley Publishing  2016]    Softback    96 pages

Nicely produced and illustrated, this is a story of three industries that grew up on the Welsh coast. In the words of the author, a sory of human interconnectedness and cooperation, of invention created by necessity, of businesses, industries and communities born out of a determination to advance, prosper and succeed. The pictures are good too!

Norman Jones    [Publisher:  Foxline  1997]    Hardback    64 pages

A very appealing picture album and description of the only British rack railway. Photographs cover the line from early days to the present, (well 1997 to be precise), but the undoubted photographic highlight of the collection are Norman's lovely series of colour views taken in 1961, well reproduced to a good size and with very natural looking colours.

John Stretton    [Publisher:  Silver Link  2007]    Softback    96 pages

Capturing the then nascent Welsh Highland Railway at a most interesting stage of its re-birth, this book has well reproduced and knowledgably captioned photographs and graphically demonstrate the huge achievements being made together with the scale of the remaining challenge. Having visited and travelled on the line myself late in 2005 and since, and personally witnessed the extraordinary developments, I can recommend both the line and this excellent book.

John Stretton    [Publisher:  Silver Link  2004]    Softback    128 pages

Volume two of a trilogy covering this remarkable railway re-birth, published when the new railway had reached the lower slopes of Snowdon and containing a fascinating mixture of historic and current views. Having been on the completed railway and looking back at this book again, the pictures have become more interesting than they were when published because so much has changed, again. Truly mind boggling.

John Stretton    [Publisher:  Silver Link  2009]    Softback    128 pages

Reprinted in 2011, this book is the final part of a trilogy from this author covering the remarkable rebuilding of the Welsh Highland Railway. Completed in an astonishingly short space of time, the re-birth of this ambitious upland route is truly staggering and up until the beginning of the 1990s was pretty much inconceivable. Good photographic coverage of the historic railway is accompanied by matched views of the new line, at the time of publication there was a tiny bit left to be done at Porthmadoc but pretty much the whole of the "finished job" as at opening in 2011 is illustrated here.