Kirjahaku

Over the years railways have seen a diverse mix of traffic and many unusual events have occurred. There have been special services for Glastonbury festival goers, consignments as varied as boilers and bees, rural branches like the 'Crab & Winkle' and the 'Strawberry Line', trains to carry corpses, circus trains, a railway with a lifeboat, zig-zag routes, and unusual commercial enterprises such as excursions to watch prize fighters, typing services on city-to-city expresses and cinema coaches. This lovingly compiled collection of titbits captures the fascination and variety of railways with over 250 accounts garnered from the press, friends and colleagues and from the author's own experience of dramatic, intriguing and sometimes hilarious events, creating an immensely readable collection of information and stories from 150 years of railway activity.

There’s never a dull moment in this entertaining collection of experiences as Geoff Body and Bill Parker present often hilarious highlights from the careers of railwaymen around Britain over the last fifty years. Featuring daring robberies, royal visits, lost passengers, bomb scares, coffins, circus trains and ladies of the night, it chronicles both successes and disasters, with accounts of moving a farm and a circus, 245 miles of marooned railway, footplate adventures, animal capers and many equally fascinating subjects. Geoff Body and Bill Parker both enjoyed long careers on the railways and they have brought together this assortment of memories from all parts of the country. Signal Box Coming Up, Sir! is an entertaining and instructive journey for anyone with an interest in life on the railways.

This book draws on the long and unique heritage of the county of Somerset, bringing to life seventy of the little known but fascinating and unusual aspects of a much-loved area. It tells of body-snatchers and bewitchment; crime and conflict; lepers and lighthouses; songs and words; heroes and villains – this is book is of and for the curious. Its accounts of larger-than-life episodes from Somerset activity, locations and people take the reader on a near-unbelievable exploration of local human behaviour and idiosyncrasy. Richly illustrated, this book is great for dipping into, but can equally be enjoyed from cover to cover.