Kirjahaku

The era of the steam locomotive at work in the city of Plymouth evokes many memories. This was Great Western territory, but the Southern played a part as well. Besides sharing a common station, each company had its own terminus and locomotive sheds. Expresses, mostly double-headed, ran to Paddington; those to Waterloo were in the main portions to be joined up somewhere else. Besides the various expresses, there were the local trains, freight trains, parcels trains, lines to the docks, excursion trains, locomotive movements, and much more than that made the city's railways so fascinating. This album seeks to capture images of the contrasts that could be seen and enjoyed in the city. From Hemerdon to the Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash, the book takes a tour along the Great Western main line, with a similar look at that of the Southern from Tamerton to Friary. The steamier aspects of the Laira and Friary sheds are explored, together with the lines which served the various quays, not forgetting the branch lines that radiated from Plymouth.

From Lostwithiel to the China Clay Rails takes the reader on a train journey from the estuary of the River Fowey to the port of Par, thence on a circular tour across the spine of Cornwall to the Atlantic Coast at Newquay and back, travelling through the heart of china clay country. Over a period of fifty years from the 1960's, we visit many of the china clay lines now long gone with many jaw dropping images taken "Then and Now" showing the great changes both on and off the rails. A host of memories are recalled and updated in this treasure chest of very rare colour material, mostly previously unpublished and almost all taken by the author.

The year 2002 saw a radical change on the railways of Devon and Cornwall: it was the last year of daily locomotive hauled passenger trains (other than the overnight London sleeper). These remaining workings were in the capable hands of the ubiquitous Class 47 diesel locomotives, which had plied their trade on the rails of the south-west for almost four decades. `Devon and Cornwall—The Class 47 Years’ is a book of two halves: the first documenting the locomotives’ daily work on all manner of trains and lines in the area from 1966 onwards and the second providing a detailed examination of 2002—their last year in front-line passenger service in the West Country—with a glimpse of some of the other automotive power seen in that year. All of this is now history, a snapshot back in time. Over 180 colour photographs, all captured by the author, take the reader on a chronological trip with much nostalgia and a host of unrepeatable scenes that showcase many of the stunning locations to be found in the two counties.

Unusually for a large class of locomotives, all Western Class locomotives had the same prefix which gave them a unique identity. Redesignated as Class 52 in the early 1970s, they were essentially designed by and for the Western Region, which saw hydraulic transmission as the way forward in replacing the 4-6-0 steam locomotives that Swindon had produced. However, the rest of British Rail went down the road of electric transmission as the mistakes of the wholesale lunge into dieselisation came to fruition, and when BR opted for a standard policy the Western Region was forced to comply. It was in 1967 that the death warrant for the hydraulics was signed, though it would take more than a decade to finally end the hydraulic era. Illustrated with full-color photographs of all 74 of the Western Class locomotives, on a variety of workings that illustrate their versatility, this nostalgic volume gives a portrait of a much-loved, but short-lived, class of locomotive. 150 illustrations