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Books
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ISLE OF PORTLAND RAILWAYS VOLUME 2:
The Weymouth & Portland Railway, The Easton & Church Hope Railway
by B.L. Jackson |
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Portland, an island projecting out into the English Channel is only 4 miles
long, by 1 3/4 miles wide. Its two main claims to fame being its stone and
the Great Breakwater forming Portland Harbour. The stone trade was the
reason for building a railway to the Island from the nearby town of
Weymouth.
Just under 4 miles long, the branch had a
complicated history, being owned by the Weymouth & Portland Railway Company,
but jointly operated by both the Great Western Railway and the London &
South Western Railway, who, when construction was complete, could not agree
terms, causing the line to lay unused for a year.
However, the problems of the Weymouth & Portland
Railway pail into insignificance compared with the predicaments of the
Easton & Church Hope Railway Company who took 33 years and nine Acts of
Parliament to construct a branch to form an end on junction with the line
from Weymouth.
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Both during construction, and after the lines were
in operation there were numerous disagreements between the owners and the
operating companies, all adding to the colourful history of this interesting
branch.
Included in this fact packed history are full
details of the methods of train working, the signalling, locomotives and
rolling stock involved, and a description of the branch.
The railway evolved around the stone trade and the
Naval establishments that caused the rapid development of the island in the
late 19th century, and it was a railway that served the country well in two
World Wars, and took its share of air raids during the later. Later to fall
victim to the motor bus, its closure to passenger traffic coming in 1952.
Written by an acknowledged local transport
historian, this work complements Volume One which deals with the Admiralty
and Quarry Railways.
The book is to A5 format and consists of 224 pages
and includes more than 200 photographs and plans. It is printed on art paper
throughout with a full colour laminated card cover. |
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OL106B |
ISBN 0 85361 551 9
ISBN 978 0 85361 551 4 |
£ 12.95 |
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ISLE OF PORTLAND RAILWAYS Vol 3: Railway, Associated & Other Bus
Services
by B.L. Jackson |
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This volume gives a detailed
account of the bus services in the Weymouth and Portland area over a period
of seventy years, and the reader will soon become aware of the railway
connection. The Great Western Railway buses were part of a defence strategy
against local tramway proposals. The activities and technical details
of the Great Western Railway buses are fully explained, including the
difficult relationship with the town council and residents, resulting in a
temporary withdrawal of services, and later proposals to replace the Easton
section of the railway with a railway bus service. The arrival of Southern
National which later replaced the railway bus service and its involvement
with the Portland branch railway, and subsequent history are covered in
detail, as are the various private operators and their fleets. The
relationships between the various bus operators, the railway companies and
the local authorities are explored, giving a vivid account of the
trials and tribulations of bus operations in a South Coast town in peace and
war. Fleet lists and details of many interesting early vehicles are
included.
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This is the first time a complete
omnibus history of the area has been compiled, and it also forms a social
history of the changing habits of the public as they deserted the railways
for the convenience of the buses and later abandoned these for the motor
car.
The book is to A5 format, and consists of 224 pages
with 150 photographs, drawings etc., it has a full colour laminated card
cover.
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OL106C |
ISBN 0 85361 566 7
ISBN 978 0 85361 566 8 |
£ 13.95 |
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THE ISLE OF WIGHT CENTRAL RAILWAY
by R. J. Maycock & R. Silsbury |
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This book tells the story of the Islandıs largest pre-Grouping railway
company. The Isle of Wight Central Railway was formed when three companies
amalgamated in 1887. The new company combined the Cowes & Newport Railway
opened in 1862, the Isle of Wight (Newport Junction) Railway opened in 1875
and the Ryde & Newport Railway opened from Ryde to a joint station with the
Cowes & Newport Railway at Newport in 1875.
A later addition to the Isle of Wight Central
Empire was the Newport Godshill and St Lawrence Railway, opened to St
Lawrence in 1897 and to Ventnor Town in 1900. The Isle of Wight Central
operated this line until 1913, it was then bought by the Central. This is
the second volume from these authors. The history of all of the Islandıs
railways will eventually be covered. The story of the IWC lines under
Southern Railway and later managements will form part of a separate book in
this series.
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After Nationalisation the IWC lines were starved of
investment. The Merstone to Ventnor and Sandown to Newport lines closed
during the 1950s; the Cowes-Newport-Ryde line soldiered on until 1966. The
Isle of Wight Steam Railway has since re-opened the section of railway
between Smallbrook Junction (where there is a station on the Ryde to
Shanklin line) to Havenstreet and Wootton.
The book is casebound with a gold-blocked spine, it
is to A5 format, and is printed on art paper throughout. It consists of 288
pages with more than 180 photographs, maps and plans etc., printed end
papers and a laminated dust jacket. |
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OL115 |
ISBN 0 85361 573 X
ISBN 978 0 85361 573 6 |
£ 22.95 |
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The Isle
of Wight Railway
by Richard Maycock & R. Silsbury |
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Born with hopes of becoming the main, if not only,
railway in the Isle of Wight, this history of the Isle of Wight Railway has
almost everything. Victorian entrepreneurs tried to build their dream
railway only to become embroiled in a financial crisis that almost
bankrupted their fledgling company. Accidents, typical of Britain's railways
at the time, pepper the history, while the inevitable staff problems and
infighting with other railways in the Island added spice to the proceedings.
Financial stability slipped away during the Great War so the company's
absorption by the Southern Railway in 1923 became both desirable and
inevitable.
This is the first time that a serious attempt has been made to chart the
history of the Isle of Wight Railway Company in detail. The book includes
maps showing both the railway as built and what might have been, extracts
from company documents, maps, drawings of stations, signalling, locomotives
and rolling stock.
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They complement a collection of photographs that give an insight into the
railway over the years. Unashamed enthusiasts of the Isle of Wight's
railways, the authors have attempted to bring the often convoluted history
of the island railways to a wider audience.
The book is to A5 format, case-bound with a gold blocked spine and laminated
dust jacket. It consists of 240 pages with 160 photos/plans/maps etc.
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OL109 |
ISBN 0 85361 544 6
ISBN 978 0 85361 544 6 |
£ 19.95 |
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The Isle
of Wight Railways from 1923 Onwards
by Richard Maycock & R. Silsbury |
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 This
book is the concluding volume, of the five volume series which together form
the most comprehensive history of the Isle of Wight railways ever to be
published.
The Isle of Wight Railways from 1923 onwards, begins with the formation of
the Southern Railway and the acquisition of 55ĵ miles of railway, a pier
at Ryde and two of the three main ferry routes between the mainland and
Island. The company transformed a disparate group of lines into a
self-contained integrated network with greatly improved stations,
locomotives and rolling stock. Wartime shortages and neglect were only
partly overcome before Nationalisation in 1948 and the start of a lengthy
period of decline. Most of the Island railway network closed between 1952
and 1966 and the Ryde Pier tramway followed in 1969. |
In 1967 the remaining 8½ mile railway from Ryde to Shanklin reopened after
electrification operated with second-hand London Transport tube stock. The
line has survived to see its rolling stock renewed in 1989 and the granting
of a franchise in 1996.
 Railway preservation began in a small way in 1966, but has steadily
developed to become an operating steam railway from Wootton to Havenstreet
and Smallbrook Junction worked by a historic collection of locomotives and
carriages.
The book is to A5 format and consists of 288 pages, it includes 224
photographs, maps and plans. It is casebound with a gold-blocked spine and
has printed
endpapers and a glossy colour dust jacket. |
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Contents
Introduction
The Southern Railway
Ryde to Ventnor and the Bembridge Branch
The Isle of Wight Central's Lines
Newport to Freshwater
Developments at Ryde
Traffic and Timetables 1923 to 1939
Hopes, War and Recovery
Omnibuses, Ferries and Aircraft in SR
days
Nationalisation and the First Closures
Traffic and Timetables after Nationalisation
The Second Round of Closures
Southern Vectis, Vectrail and Others
Steam Locomotives
Passenger and Goods Rolling Stock
'Modernisation'
The Ryde to Shanklin Line
Rolling Stock after 1966
Railway Preservation in the Isle of Wight
Appendices
Bibliography
Index |
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OL140 |
ISBN 0
85361 656 6
ISBN 978 0 85361 656 6 |
£ 25.00 |
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THE ISLE OF WIGHT REVISITED
by Colin Fairweather and Alan Stroud |
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Most of the photographs in
this book were taken nearly a hundred years ago. Some are older and date
from the 1890s and a few are from the 1920s. All the photographs were taken
on glass negatives and apart from a handful, have not been seen since the
day they were first printed. Over the passing years, the glass negatives
have lain untouched in their boxes until now.
Without exception, all the
photographs in this book have been produced by returning to these original
glass plate negatives to produce stunning new prints from them, modern
technology allowing them to be carefully and sensitively restored with a
degree of sophistication unimagined by the photographers. The result is a
unique collection of photographs of the Island, all of the highest quality.
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The negatives are part of a
collection of nearly 700 glass plates belonging to the authors, that has
been gathered together over the last 30 years. Many of the photographs were
originally taken for commercial purposes, to be cropped and then produced in
small runs as postcards for the tourist trade, whilst others were simply
taken as family mementoes and holiday snapshots.
Almost certainly, none of the
photographers could have foreseen that their work would still be in
existence 100 years later, let alone that it would have acquired enough
historical interest to have inspired a book. This time we have been able to
extract the maximum detail from the original plates and present them in a
larger format and in a higher quality than the original photographers could
have dreamt of. We have no doubt they would be pleased and proud to see
their work brought to life again.
Each plate has a brief
description beneath it, with an extended caption to found in the rear of the
book. The negatives used for this volume are the work of seven, possibly
more, generally unknown photographers; the exception to this being those of
William R. Hogg, a name well known to today's vintage postcard collectors,
who was a photographic postcard producer from Ryde, who also owned and ran
George Street Post Office. There is naturally therefore, a greater
percentage of Hogg's work in this book than that of any other contributor.
It is fair to assume that most of the photographs of the East Wight area are
the work of Hogg.
At the turn of the last
century, when most of these images were produced, it would have been common
practice to produce 'contact prints' which were made by placing the
previously developed negative on top of a sheet of light sensitive
photographic paper in a darkened room and then exposing the layered
'sandwich', briefly, to high intensity light, usually a tungsten bulb. On
developing the paper, an identically sized, positive print would be
produced. Consequently, most photographers of this period hardly ever saw
their work enlarged and sadly, were unable to appreciate the full beauty and
quality of their images. Ironically, the most technically capable of the
photographers whose work is displayed here, W.R. Hogg, although using the
larger half plate format which produced the highest quality negatives was
actually losing 33 per cent of each image by cropping the picture to fit the
standard postcard-size format of 3½
in. x 5½
in. Consequently, this means that for the first time, these Hogg images are
now being seen in their entirety and in optimum quality.
Truly the Isle of Wight Revisited.
New, larger, landscape format, 210mm x 290mm.
More than 100 full-page plates, on 128 pages. Casebound with a gold-blocked
spine, printed endpapers, and a laminated dust jacket. |
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X81 |
ISBN 0
85361 642 6
ISBN 978 0 85361 642 9 |
£ 19.95 |
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ISLE OF
WIGHT STEAM PASSENGER ROLLING STOCK
by Richard Maycock & M.J.E. Reed |
The history of the railways of the Isle of Wight is both long and
fascinating. The passenger stock holds particular attractions simply
because of its varied origins. Brought together in one volume is the story
of the steam-hauled stock used by the Island companies, Southern Railway
and British Railways. The book concludes with a brief look at vehicles
that have survived into preservation on the Isle of Wight Steam Railway.
Authors profits from this book will go towards further restoration and
maintenance of passenger rolling stock for the Isle of Wight Steam
Railway. The book is to A5 format it is printed on art paper throughout
including more than 130 photographs/maps and plans and has a square-backed
Linson cover.
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X59 |
ISBN 0 85361 507 1
ISBN 978 0 85361 507 1 |
£ 11.95 |
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