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The beginning of the 20th century saw the coal and iron industries in the Welsh valleys reach a peak of production, then enter a slow but accelerating decline and finally close down in the 1960s. During this period valley towns, of which Risca is typical, experienced a radical Change in their way of life.

As in the rest of Britain, the changes ,were initiated and sustained by advances in science, technology, education and communications. They were compounded in the valleys, however, by the contraction of the two basic industries that gave employment to the great majority of the men.  Each village was a tightly-knit community; living in terraces in relatively small communities brought the people into close contact with each other. As the author writes, a symbiotic relationship existed between the workplace, the chapel, local politics and sport. Percy Chivers, the subject of this book was to represent both Risca and Cross Keys rugby teams. Mutual help societies gave financial assistance in times of unemployment as well as for medical care and funeral expenses.

In The Times of 26th August, 1998 there was a news item headed 'Ministers pledge cash for revival of rail links'. Prominent against the text was a large photograph of Bassenthwaite Lake station, taken in 1959. Holidaymakers and local people are alighting from the two-coach train, the people in , the photograph look happy. The station is well cared for with hedges neatly trimmed and flowers in the borders. The hills, so impressive, make a superb back-drop to the scene. It is idyllic. Yet all is not well even though the people in the picture are smiling, possibly for the camera. The guard seems to look rather more concerned than happy; the railway system in this part of the country was coming under close scrutiny and, ultimately, a threat. In only a little more than a decade after the photograph was taken, the line would be closed. In the accompanying article the writer informed his readers about the recent move by the Government to give one the green light to a string of railway construction projects. Railtrack, it was reported, was supporting proposals that it considered to have a strong commercially viable case. These included a connection from Penrith to Keswick, on the former CK&PR. . .

Robert, James and Henry Coey / Cowie were three brothers who all chose the railways in Ireland as their career path, and who all got to top positions, Robert in Dublin on the Great Southern & Western Railway with Maunsell as his Works Manager, and James and Henry in Belfast with the Belfast & Northern Counties Railway as it was prepared for take-over by the Midland Railway. The stories cover their involvement in important developments in  engineering and management techniques at a time when the railway reigned supreme as the prime transport medium. The Span of their careers also covers a time of great change in Irish history, as that land struggled for its own identity and political voice. The one notable event linking the two themes of the book, engineering in the South and management in the North, was the birth and brief career of the Titanic. James and Henry watched the building of this vessel and Robert's locomotives and stock took several hundred of the passengers to Cobh for their last fateful voyage.

It is hoped that this book will enable the readers to understand the expertise that undoubtedly sprang from the competent brothers which eventually passed to others under them. Many of those so influenced were to go across to England and ply their trades on railways there to good effect. As with all biographies, access to family data helps in the formation of a more complete assessment of the subjects. Such information was unearthed in written and pictorial form and has been used to good effect in building a picture of the three brothers careers. Irish history is a fascinating subject, the interweaving of events over the late 19th to early 20th centuries with the railway developments attributed to the brothers shows how politics can interfere with the smooth running and development of transport services so vital to a land's economy. This, then, tells the story of three exceptional men who played such an important part in the Irish railway scenario.

The book is to A5 format, it consists of 176 pages with more than 150 illustrations. It is printed on art paper throughout, with a full colour laminated card cover with a square-backed spine.

Lake Coniston, with its undoubted beauty, might well have been the obvious destination for a railway; a line to provide access for visitors to come and enjoy this special area of the Lake District. Certainly Coniston did get a railway but providing a facility for visitors was not the primary reason for building it. Industrial commerce was the driving force, copper being the prime consideration. By the time the Coniston line was opened in 1859, copper was being increasingly resourced from foreign sources. Even so the mines would remain in business into the next century.

Nevertheless, the carrying of passengers was soon seen as a vital role and as well as providing a local service, it was also realized that measures should be taken to enhance the tourist potential of the line. The railway decided they needed to 'push the boat out', and by the end of 1859 had launched the steam vessel Gondola, much later to be joined by The Lady of the Lake.

The origins of the line lay in two companies, the Surrey & Sussex Junction and the Croydon, Oxted & East Grinstead, both having unusual features: no engine ever turned a wheel for the Surrey & Sussex Junction, and the Croydon, Oxted & East Grinstead was a joint committee of two other railway companies. But, more than that, it was a railway in the round, for no narrow straits confined its traffics.

The book is to A5 format and consists of 208 pages with 140 photographs, maps and plans, etc. It is printed on art paper throughout and is perfect bound with a square-backed full colour laminated card cover.

In 1870 what did most Victorians know of the Culm Valley in Devon?   Nothing or very little. An exception was Arthur Pain whose brother lived at Hemyock. Pain was a proponent of light railways and had been trained by R.P. Brereton, I.K. Brunel’s chief assistant. Pain’s plan was for a track with minimal earthworks and thus have a low cost of construction. Where better than to try out his idea than in the Culm Valley which had industry, farming and the tourist potential of the Wellington Monument only three miles from Hemyock, the great exploits of the Duke still within living memory? The River Culm rises three miles away in the Blackdown Hills in Somerset, it give its name to several settlements on its banks and, in the 19th century, powered corn and cloth mills.
 

The Culm Valley Light Railway epitomised the idyllic English country branch line railway as it wended its way along the unusually tight curves along the Culm Valley.

William Nash (1909-1952) was a gifted individual born at St Bees in Cumbria. Between 1926 and 1952 he worked on the railway starting out in a signal box at the time of the General Strike. His talents were recognised with promotion. In World War II he was assistant district controller at Rugby and by 1952 he was working in the London Midland Region headquarters planning Royal Train journeys. All this was cut short when he lost his life in the Harrow railway disaster of 8th October, 1952.

The book is to A5 page size in landscape format, printed on high quality ivory silk paper, and includes just over 100 photographs. It is perfect bound with a square-backed spine with a laminated colour cover.