Philip John Greer Ransom

Iron road: the railway in Scotland. Birlinn, 2007. 334pp.
Copy seen in the National Library of Scotland (a copy acquired for loan via the splendid free Scottish inter-library loan system). Thus copy only seen relatively briefly, and not read. Splendid illsutrations, but book partially fails as it attempts to do too many things. On a superficial level it could be a coffee table book as it is richly illustrated and the jacket photograph based on a Norman Wilkinson poster is both superb and hints that it may be that kind of book. Essentially, the book sets out to be a history of Scottish railways and is travelling along the same tracks as Nock's Scottish railways, but does it considerably better, although.the index (which appears to be tolerably good) failed to produce any mention of either public relations (KPJ is looking for something, so far without success), or of James Ness (only indirectly related to premier quest). In part it is also a serious treatise on the contribution of the Dodd(s) family to locomotive development in Scotland (pp. 303-4: Monkland & Kirkintilloch locomotives, and the Dodd(s) family or families (pp. 303-4) and is critical of S. Snell's Story of railway pioneers and a Newcomen Society paper about the Dodd(s). Extensive biblipography.
The Mont Cenis Fell Railway. Truro: Tweleveheads, 1999. 92pp.
Carefully researched and fully referenced.
Narrow gauge steam: its origins and world-wide development. Sparkford: OPC, 1996. 192pp.
Almost a model of how a railway book should be produced, with extensive list of material consulted, but unhappily ended with the usual list of periodicals which may, or may not, have been consulted. Nevertheless, the bibliography is extensive and includes some papers quoted in sufficient detail to be retrievable and some assessment within the text of material which has been used. Some good biographical material on people like George England and Robert Fairlie.