£9.99

ON SALE IN OCTOBER EXCLUSIVELY AT W.H. SMITH HIGH STREET SHOPS. PICK ONE UP WHEN YOU NEXT BUY YOUR MAGAZINE

The 1960s was the great decade of change on our country's railways. At the beginning was a steam railway through and through; by the end steam had completely disappeared, swept away by a tide of diesels and electrics. The railway that we know today had come into being and the old noisy, slow, smoky one that was somehow altogether more enchanting, had gone forever. This exclusive album, THE STEAMING SIXTIES, using much hitherto unseen material, chronicles this last great decade, played out against a backdrop of the Beatles, winning the world cup, the mini and the end of Empire. This is what it looked like, in glorious colour; the smoke, the steam, the sounds almost...
find out more

£27.95

DUE mid September

By Peter Swift

The ubiquitous passenger tank engine of Southern England, detailed and examined as never before. All the usual 'Book Of' goodies - works and shed data, and endless, dazzling, absorbing detail. There was no official differentiation between the engines and, until Southern days, there were no differences in the uses to which an M7 could be put. However, the various types of M7 had distinctive differences which are apparent to the locomotive historian and important to the modeller. They are teased out and demonstrated here for the first time.
find out more

£11.95

DUE mid September

Paul Anderson

During the summer of 1967, despite the imminent extinction of BR steam in the North East, there were two lines where ageing locos could be seen in all their volcanic glory. These were the railways serving coal mines at Silksworth and South Hetton south of Sunderland. Both of them involved very steep gradients, but the origin and setting of these railways were entirely different. The Silksworth branch was built specifically to give access to the colliery of that name. Part of it was completely dominated by the gigantic spoil heap of Ryhope pit and the views of J27s slogging uphill were truly spectacular. Access to South Hetton involved the very early Durham & Sunderland Railway, which was almost entirely worked by stationary engines and ropes for many years. The steepest part of the line was Seaton Bank in open farmland, so there were no birds-eye panoramas to be had. However, J27s and Q6s were pounding away just as heavily and the visual effects on these pages are virtually audible.

find out more

£11.95

DUE mid September

Euston to St Pancras via Yorkshire

Or: A Tale of Two Cup Finals...

By Robin Charlton

A giant cake slice of London Midland steam, roaming north on Cup Final Day from Euston, then in the turmoil of rebuilding, followed by a ramble around some of the coal country of Yorkshire, still barely touched by diesels and returning via the Midland to St Pancras, on yet another Cup Final Day. Magical.

find out more

£29.95

DUE OCT/NOV - BUT YOU CAN ORDER NOW!

For more than a century trains to the North Devon line commenced their journey at Exeter Central station, 171 miles from Waterloo and the centre of the Southern network in the West Country. Although North Devon line trains usually started their journey from here they often incorporated through coaches from Waterloo, brought down in an express which was re-marshalled at Exeter Central. The restaurant cars would be taken off, the through carriages to Plymouth, Padstow and Bude leaving first on the Plymouth train and the through carriages to Ilfracombe and Torrington following on the North Devon train. The most famous of these trains was the 'Atlantic Coast Express' or 'ACE', the 11 o'clock from Waterloo but of course the 1.10am, 9am, 1pm and 3pm expresses from Waterloo usually conveyed through coaches to North Devon.

This is not simply a reprint of two former titles but a complete revamp, update and expansion to give the reader a new insight into the line from Exeter to Ilfracombe.

find out more

£26.95

DUE FOR DELIVERY OCT/NOV - BUT YOU CAN PLACE YOUR ADVANCE ORDER NOW

The sum of all the books ever published on the Great Northern Railway from Kings Cross to Doncaster, its successors the LNER, then the Eastern Region of British Railways, and now including Railtrack and Network Rail, together with the engineers and their locomotives, if laid end to end, would take us well down the line itself, maybe even beyond it. And that's without the outpourings of the Internet.

This is different; a book about the GNR, of course, but from the engineering and operational perspective in particular, continuing from the last days of the GNR up to the present time. It is a description of the heritage that our predecessors created, their skill, experience and occasional mistakes, judged intelligently (it is to be hoped) with hindsight.

The two volumes describe the GNR main line in the form of a journey northwards to the centre of the universe for aficionados, Doncaster; Part One takes us as far as Welwyn Garden City. Inevitably, for one whose acquaintance with the 'GN', as we called it, started a quarter of a century after the company's demise, it is seen through the prisms of engineering knowledge and personal experience. It is illustrated with Ordnance Surveys of the period in most cases, although some post-date the 1922 Grouping, complemented with photographs.

It describes what would now be termed the 'infrastructure' of the GNR existing at the time of Grouping, describing the methods of construction used, the implications for subsequent maintenance and renewals and the methods used, over the decades up to the present. The commentary continues with subsequent events on the working railway up to more recent times, particularly methods on maintaining the working railway, with anecdotes from that working railway.

find out more

£11.95

ON SALE OCT/NOV - BUT YOU CAN ORDER NOW!

Everyone knows the significance of the year 1066 and, with luck, that of 1485 too. Few however will regard 1969 as having any meaning at all, yet a seismic shift was just about to get underway in the world of British bus transport. It would alter radically the character and scope of our bus services. Four factors would soon combine to change the nature of our bus fleets forever. First, the Transport Act 1968 would sweep away many municipal fleets in our metropolitan areas; secondly, one of our largest bus operators, British Electric Traction (BET), had decided to throw in the towel and sell out to the state owned Transport Holding Company (Tilling had already been thus absorbed) in 1969. This paved the way for wholesale rationalisation which reached its climax with the deregulation of services. Thirdly, car ownership was steadily rising. Customer diversion had started to bite for both bus operators and British Railways. Finally, the half cab bus was doomed by government legislation designed to promote one man operation, producing a bias towards the construction of rear engined buses.

So in the North West, by the end of 1969, the new Passenger Transport Authority for South East Lancashire and North East Cheshire, SELNEC, had swallowed up no less than eleven municipal transport undertakings and the Transport Holding Company had bought BET's transport interests. The Transport Holding Company was soon to metamorphose into the National Bus Company and the consequent rationalisation would, notably, spell the end for the North Western Road Car Company in 1972 while Ribble would be shorn of some of its peripheral operations. SELNEC itself was turned into the Greater Manchester PTE by 1974 as yet another local government reorganisation took place, following which in 1976 it swallowed up the largest remaining private operator, Lancashire United, which survived in name only, until 1981.

find out more