OAKWOOD PRESS & VIDEO LIBRARY

William Nash acquired his first camera at the age of 13. He was besotted by trains from his earliest years and they formed his favourite subjects. These factors came together in remarkable photographs taken by a teenager in the 1920s. In turn there followed a successful career with the London Midland & Scottish Railway before William lost his life in the Harrow Railway Disaster on the 8^th October, 1952. William's pictures record the inter-war British railway scene, whilst his correspondence conducted in Esperanto with railwaymen across the world creates a poignant portrait of the gathering storm in the 1930s in which he took great interest.

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 around 1950 he was working in the London Midland Region headquarters planning Royal Train journeys. All this was cut short when he lost his life at Harrow.

In 1922, he started taking railway pictures, outside the family circle, these remained unknown until 2000. Nash had, for one so young, a good eye for composition and a keen awareness of what would be a worthwhile subject. Great Western Dean Goods, the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway, Sentinel steam railcars on Jersey, the Ashover Light Railway, Midland Railway 'Spinners', new LMS 'Royal Scots' or Southern Railway 'King Arthurs', all fill his albums.

His youngest daughter Kate Robinson and transport historian Robert Forsythe have shared the task of presenting his material. A series of retrospective exhibitions were staged in Cumbria to mark the 50th anniversary of his death in 2002-2003.

This new volume looks at the wider spread of Nash's pictorial material around Britain and examines his professional life as a career railwayman during which he was involved in some pioneering studies, including inter-war electrification proposals on the LMS. Newly originated hand prints from the original negatives have been made for the book by Kate Robinson.

The book is to A5 page size in landscape format, 192 pages, printed on high quality ivory silk paper, and includes just over 190 photographs. It is perfect bound with a square-backed spine and a laminated colour cover.

The author begins by describing how, when he left school in 1943, he embarked on an Engineering Apprenticeship with the London, Midland & Scottish Railway in its Derby Locomotive Works. This type of course had at an earlier time been called a 'Privileged Apprenticeship' and the term 'Priv' was still applied to the author and his colleagues - hence his 'Privileged' view of steam. Having described in some detail the pleasures and pains, and the trials and tribulations of his training, and the particular incident where he stood in for a colleague on one of the Locomotive Interchange Trials, which determined the direction that his career would take. Alan admits that his close acquaintance with steam locomotives led to the blossoming of an intense enthusiasm for steam, something that has never left him.

With his practical training behind him, office work within the Works is the next stop, and then the incident referred to above led to a move to the Locomotive Testing Section in the drawing office, where his work included test runs with 'Black Fives', 'Britannias' and 'Austerities' viewed from the dynamometer car, so that close encounters with steam engines once again became the order of the day. This was a fascinating period with many aspects, enabling the author to indulge in a wide range of experiences, including the schoolboy dream of driving a railway engine. A move into the Research Department (of what was by now British Railways) for some time, led to a gradual diminution in the steam content of his working life; nevertheless, various projects still came his way which enabled him, in one way or another, to have hands-on contact with steam locomotives for half of his railway career.

The book is to A5 format, consists of 120 pages with 88 illustrations and a laminated cover.

The author started work on this book not because he was strongly pro Thompson but because he was curious, curious about Thompson and about the way that he had been either roughly treated, or ignored by the earlier authors. In this respect Thompson was undoubtedly the architect of his misfortunes by virtue of his unapproachable manner. Whilst most experienced railway writers are capable of presenting reasoned and balanced views on a wide variety of railway topics from locomotive performance to high level decisions, it seems that the name of Thompson, particularly in context with that of Sir Nigel Gresley, causes an emotional disturbance.

This book is based on the author’s career with ‘British Railways’ from 1956 to 1995, a career spanning almost 40 years and moving through from Victorian steam locomotive technology to the age of computers, and even included a spell on the Waterloo & City.

About 1954 Brian Aynsley discovered that there was a loco depot at Guildford and after that spent many happy hours watching the operations in and around that station. He was invited onto the footplate of an engine standing at the station and knew then when he left school he wanted to work on steam locomotives. This book then tells the story of his ensuing railway career from engine cleaner at Guildford onwards. He witnessed the demise of steam, the arrival of new motive power and the eventual restructuring of the nation’s railway network.

Discover the charm of the Artois metre gauge railways and tramways - and indeed there is much to discover. In an area roughly bounded by Calais in the north, St-Omer and Aire-sur-la-Lys in the east, Anvin and Montreuil in the south and Berck-Plage, Le Touquet Paris-Plage, étaples, Hardelot Plage, Le Portel, Boulogne and Wimereux on the channel coast, at its most extensive there were 188 miles of metre gauge railways and urban and inter-urban tramways.

These days the region is a major tourist destination for the British, but few know of the bygone age of metre gauge railways. Many walk the walls of Montreuil every year, little knowing about the old railway route below. The book concludes with what can be seen now, and some walks on parts of the former trackbeds.

So journey with us in a ‘battered, lightly-built but upholstered little vehicle’ from ‘Calais Town’s remotest bay’ to discover the delights of the tortillards of Artois.

This meticulously researched history, is well illustrated with 50 maps and drawings, and includes more than 200 photographs. A5 format, perfect bound with a square-backed spine, 336 pages.