OAKWOOD PRESS & VIDEO LIBRARY

The 10 locomotives were of classic British design being supplied by Manning, Wardle; Black, Hawthorn; and Beyer, Peacock. The railway served the island for almost 50 years before succumbing to road competition. Author's affection for his subject shines through in this account of this fascinating railway. A new section, by Roger Cleaver, 'Exploring the Remains of the Malta Railway' , has been added.

This is the story of a railway whose ambitions were as lofty as the Cambrian mountains through which it sought to build, but whose achievements were as modest as the townships of mid-Wales which it ultimately served.

The Manchester & Milford Railway never came within many a mile of either place. It amounted to a delightful cross country route from Aberystwyth, south to Pencader Junction near Carmarthen - plus a never-used short section, visible to this day, beyond the mountains, to Llangurig.

It is a story of struggle against the odds, of internecine warfare between Directors and with the Court of Chancery and its appointees, of lawsuits and disputes with neighbouring railways, of impecuniousness and frustrated hopes: a story of construction through hard times and hard country by a giant among Welsh railway promoters - David Davies - and of the building of a fiefdom by the

A5 format, the book consists of 216 pages with 178 illustrations and is printed on high quality art paper. It has a glossy colour card cover with a square-backed spine.

For almost a hundred years the Mangotsfield-Bath line provided a direct rail link from Bath to the Midlands and the North of England.  Originally built as a branch with a splendid terminus at Green Park, the line took on greater significance once the Somerset & Dorset line had opened, which enabled trains to run through from the North to Bournemouth.  Numerous industries along the line supplied a variety of goods traffic and local passenger trains ran through to both Bristol Temple Meads and Bristol St Philip's stations.  

Fortunately this story is not set entirely in the past.  Part of the route has been preserved by the Avon Valley Railway, from its base at Bitton station. A recent extension southwards enables passengers and users of the Bristol and Bath Railway Path to reach the riverside and picnic area. The AVR' s long term plan is to extend their line to the outskirts of Bath - a return trip of some 14 miles. The AVR already receives 80,000 visitors a year. The magnificent 'train shed' structure at Bath Green Park station has also been preserved and now provides cover for a car park.

A century ago Douglas Earle Marsh assumed the helm at Brighton as locomotive, carriage and wagon superintendent of the LB&SCR. Best known for the celebrated Brighton Atlantics and also the 'I3' class 4-4-2 tank engines which put the LNWR to shame on tests with the 'Sunny South Express', Marsh was also responsible for some less successful creations. Less well known are his dismal relations with the Brighton workforce and the official cover up of his dismissal due to a number of irregularities.

The straightforward mechanical details of the various locomotive classes has been told before and are summarised briefly. This biography deals with the man himself, his personality and performance, 'warts and all', and yet despite his several shortcomings seeks to be fair to a man who started at Brighton on the wrong foot, he himself admitting that, when he had only been there two days, the men wished to see the back of him.

Lewis Cozens began his series of booklets on minor railways in the 1940s and 1950s, and had become assiduous in searching local and county records. In 1972 Oakwood published an edition of his three Cambrian booklets in one volume. Some 30 years later Roger Kidner revised and updated the text. The story was brought to life by the stories and tales that Brian Poole was able to collect from those who knew the three lines well. Each of these lines had its own character: Mawddwy served the slate quarries; Van served the lead mines; and Kerry carried quantities of timber, served brickworks, and struggled to cope with the large influx of traffic generated by the annual Kerry sheep fair. Powys contains many abandoned railways, there is something haunting about them, the ghosts of services past. Of all these the Mawddwy, Van and Kerry were the first to expire. The collection of the local communities' reminiscences of these lines ensures that they will not been forgotten.

With this third edition, however, the story has a present tense once more and, with luck, a future. For since 1990 a determined band of volunteers has been working to reconstruct a section, at least, of the line, and while we may never again see trains cover the 19 miles from Haughley Junction to Laxfield, a steam service over a portion at Brockford and maybe even over the 2½ miles from there to Aspall does look capable of achievement. As this edition went to press, the reconstituted MSLR Company was in consultations with the local authority after an initial refusal of planning permission for a working line, but hopes were high that an accommodation could be reached.

This further expanded celebration of the Mid-Suffolk Light Railway traces the way an improbable dream has started to become reality, but also tells the original story in more detail and with greater accuracy. A5 format, 144 pages, printed on art paper, 94 photographs and 13 maps/plans with a Linson square-backed jacket.