|
| |
|
Books
Br - By
BRANCH
LINES to RAMSEY
by John Rhodes |
 |
76 pages containing text and 39 photographs. 11 plans/drawings. A5 format.
Two-colour Linson cover.
|
|
|
LP157 |
ISBN 0 85361 323 0
ISBN 978 0 85361 323 7 |
£ 4.50 |
|
BRIDGWATER
RAILWAY
by J.D. Harrison |
|
96 pages of art paper, with 71 photos/maps/plans. A5 format. Two-colour
Linson cover.
|
 |
|
|
LP132 |
ISBN 0 85361 403 2
ISBN 978 0 85361 403 6 |
£ 4.95 |
|
BRIDPORT RAILWAY
by B.L. Jackson & M.J. Tattershall |
|
The Bridport branch was 9¼ miles long from Maiden Newton to Bridport
station, and during its 118 years life span it saw many changes. It
commenced as a private railway operated by the GWR on the ill-fated broad
gauge. An extension to West Bay, it was hoped, would bring prosperity to
both the railway company and the local community. Absorbed into the GWR,
the line continued through two world wars and into a changing world in
which the motor vehicle was eventually to dominate. The Bridport branch
saw it all, and despite being proposed for closure in the 1963 Beeching
plan it struggled on for a further 12 years, becoming Dorset’s last
passenger branch line to close.
As well as a nostalgic look at the line from
steam to diesel, the authors have attempted to give an insight into both
railway history and railway working, together with a look at the
involvement of the staff who operated the branch.
|
 |
|
The social and economic background
against which the line traded and survived is also covered, and we hope
the reader will enjoy this book as much as we have enjoyed researching the
days when Bridport had a railway.
The book is to A5 format, and consists of 224
pages of art paper which include over 190 photographs/maps and plans etc.
It is casebound with a gold-blocked spine and a glossy laminated 2-colour
dust jacket. |
|
OL103 |
ISBN 0 85361 520 9
ISBN 978 0 85361 520 0 |
£ 19.95 |
|
THE BRIXHAM
BRANCH
by C.R. Potts |
|
First published in 1987 as a modest book of 96 pages plus photographs, the
second enlarged edition has expanded to 176 pages, plus 116 photographs and
plans, timetables, etc. The majority of the photographs are new to this
edition. The book is to A5 format and is printed on art paper throughout
with a colour laminated card cover.
Built and financed by Richard Wolston, a Brixham
solicitor, the Torbay & Brixham Railway opened in 1868 and was from the
beginning worked by the South Devon Railway which had its headquarters in
Plymouth. In 1870 Richard Wolston was declared insolvent, the cost of giving
Brixham its railway having broken him financially. After the GWR took over
the South Devon in 1876, the T&B became truly independent, but it was a
struggle to survive and in 1883 the GWR bought it for a bargain price, far
less than it had cost to build.
|
 |
|
Opening chapters describe the struggle to open the
line, its problems with the SDR and its eventual complete independence. Much
more has been found out about some of the early workers on the branch.
A new chapter details the tremendous difficulties
the railway had in obtaining enough water to keep the engines going, in the
summer often needing daily tenders of water from Newton Abbot after the GWR
took over. The GWR years are fully described, with inclusion of plenty of
timetables and plans to enhance the text. Since the first edition, the
closure files have been seen, and the events leading up to this sad day in
May 1963 can now be described in more detail. A final chapter describes the
line and its operation and several more personal memories from those
involved with the line are included. Finally eight Appendices cover revenue
and traffic details, the station masters, the engines shedded between 1902
and 1929 (when the shed closed), amongst other things.
In January 2000 newspaper publicity was given to
the possible reopening of most of the line with electric traction at a cost
of £4 million. Also in April 2000 a new model of Brixham station with
working auto-train opens in Brixham Museum. Some 32 years after it first
opened, the Brixham Branch is still being talked about. |
|
LP161 |
ISBN 0 85361 556 X
ISBN 978 0 85361 556 9 |
£ 11.95 |
|
THE BROOKWOOD NECROPOLIS RAILWAY
by John M. Clarke |
 |
The return of an Oakwood
Press favourite which has been much enlarged for this Fourth Edition. The
fascination continues in what must surely have been one of the most unusual
train services to operate on a British railway - the service operated from
London Waterloo to Brookwood Necropolis, near Woking. The book tells how the
railway conveyed the deceased and their accompanying mourners to their final
resting place, the Brookwood Necropolis, which at one time was the largest
cemetery in the world. The Necropolis was originally promoted as concerns
about public health in the nation’s capital and elsewhere had increased,
London having suffered its first cholera epidemic in the mid-19th century.
The service finally ceased shortly after World War II. The railway has been
the inspiration for two novels, read the full true story of this
remarkable railway which author John Clarke has been studying for more than
25 years. |
The Brookwood Necropolis
Railway had many unusual features, in the cemetery there were two stations
one for the Anglican section and another for the Non-Conformists and even
after death class distinctions were made with first, second or third class
coffin tickets available. Somewhat surprisingly there were licensed premises
at the stations. Visitors to the station bars have said that there were
notices displayed stating ‘Spirits served here’!
This much enlarged new edition, which includes expanded text and a number of
new photographs, is to A5 format, with 192 pages of art paper. Amongst its
115 illustrations are photographs, maps, building plans, track layouts and
plans of special rolling stock used on the line as well as tickets and other
ephemera connected to the railway and the Necropolis company. This new
edition also has a large pull-out map of Brookwood Necropolis. The book is
perfect-bound with a laminated card cover and square-backed spine.
|
|
LP143 |
ISBN 0 85361
655 8
ISBN 978 0 85361 655 9 |
£ 12.95 |
|
BURNTISLAND - Fife's Railway Port
by Peter Marshall |
|
Burntisland was initially served by railways that were to form part of the
North British Railway Company. The crossing of the Firth of Forth makes it
an interesting and important railway centre. Ferries had been established
for some years before Thomas Bouch designed and introduced the world¹s
first roll-on roll-off train ferry in 1850, this operated between
Burntisland and Granton (near Edinburgh).
The construction of another remarkable piece of
engineering, namely the Forth Bridge, eventually lead to a loss of
importance of the ferry crossing. The NBR exported huge quantities of coal
from the Fife coalfield through the Burntisland Docks which were gradually
improved and expanded through the years. This book tells the story from
the first arrival of the railway to the present day.
|
 |
|
A5 format, 192 pages of art paper with more than
140 photos, maps and plans with a full colour laminated card cover and a
square-backed spine. |
|
LP218 |
ISBN 0 85361 578 0
ISBN 978 0 85361 578 1 |
£ 12.95 |
|
BURRY PORT & GWENDREATH VALLEY RAILWAY and its ANTECEDENT CANALS Vol. One:
The Canals
by Ray Bowen |
 |
The author's father was posted to Burry Port in 1933
to work over the Old Company, the erstwhile Burry Port & Gwendreath Valley
Railway. He was passionately interested in any form of history. His four
year sojourn at Burry Port was particularly interesting for him, as there he
was operating over a route which had been a canal and had evolved into a
railway with its many eccentricities. Conditions were often so difficult
with flooding that his father on occasions was not sure whether he was an
engine driver or a bargee! The author would accompany him on footplate trips
over the Gwendraeth. Features of the old canal works and other interesting
industrial items would be pointed out to him.
Many years later the seeds planted in his young
mind have brought this important work on the company's history to fruition.
This first volume deals with the earliest years, the canal history.
|
|
Four substantial canals fulfilled the needs of the
expanding anthracite mining industry which was to become world renowned. The Kidwelly & Llanelly Canal &
Tramroad Co. became the main waterway. From Burry Port it was carried over two substantial
aqueducts and was lifted by three massive inclines to Cwmmawr. By 1866 this waterway was transformed into the Burry Port &
Gwendreath Valley Railway Co. Although experiencing great operating
difficulties because of the limited canal bridge clearances and constant
flooding, the company became an efficient and immensely profitable
passenger-carrying system.
The book is to A5 format, 184 pages with 56
photos/plans and full colour glossy laminated card cover.
|
|
OL116a |
ISBN 0 85361 577
2
ISBN 978 0 85361 577 4 |
£ 12.95 |
|
BY GREAT WESTERN TO CREWE
-
The Story of the Wellington to Nantwich and Crewe Line
by
Bob Yate |
The
centrepiece of this railway history is the town of Market Drayton. Canals
reached the town in 1835 enabling the produce of the area to reach the
West Midlands and the North West of England with a reasonable chance that
much of it would be acceptably fresh. Just as the town was beginning to
feel the benefits of canal transport, so railways began to appear
connecting neighbouring towns.
Eventually, the ‘railway mania’ spawned a number of schemes that promised
to include Market Drayton and thus provide transport links to the outside
world. However, these were mostly independent, all failed to materialise.
Consequently, the local townspeople made several petitions to the London &
North Western Railway to be considered in its schemes, without any
success. However, the Great Western Railway was more responsive, although
at the earliest stage it wished to remain firmly in the background.
|
 |
The
placement of the town on a through route to enable traffic to proceed with
ease in all directions of the compass, rather than being at the end of yet
another minor branch line, took about six years from the first steps. This
rather dilatory progress caused a degree of impatience locally, but once
achieved was welcomed wholeheartedly, and eventually led to the addition
of a further route, by the North Staffordshire Railway to Stoke in 1870.
The town had at last achieved what it had desired - good communications
with an element of competition. The benefits of the railways to the
business communities of Market Drayton, and the other smaller towns and
numerous remote agricultural enterprises along the routes, were enjoyed
for nearly a hundred years. The Wellington to Nantwich line was never a
major passenger route, and did not generate large amounts of freight, nor
had it ever been anticipated as such. But it was a major strategic route
for freight traffic, as evidenced particularly throughout the two world
wars, and even in the days of major route closures was called upon to act
as a primary diversionary route during the electrification of the West
Coast Main Line in the early 1960s.
During British Railways days, the route was principally under the control
of the London Midland Region, but it never lost its Great Western flavour
and traditions.
A5 format, perfect bound with 208 pages, 190 illustrations, and a
laminated colour cover. |
|
LP228 |
ISBN 0
85361 639 6
ISBN 978 0 85361 639 9 |
£ 13.95 |
|
|
|
