Jim [James Henry] Russell:
Great Western Railway locomotive historian

steamindex home page

Clearly, a late one-man historian of considerable energy and talent. Ian Carter (Note 9 page 77) devotes one of his few biographical notes to Jim Russell. He joined the GWR as a lad porter in 1930, served in the Operating Corps of the Royal Engineers during WW2 (where he worked on the Dean Goods in France) and turned to professional photography in 1945. He was a founder member of the Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society. He was an expert 0 gauge modeller and organized the British Rail/Oxford Publishing Company Joint Venture to provide copies of BR engineering drawings..

Freight wagons and loads in service on the Great Western Railway. Oxford Publishing, 1981. [250]pp.
Ottley 18007
Great Western wagons. Oxford Publishing, 1971.
Great Western wagons appendix. Oxford Publishing, 1974.
Ottley 12020 (both): very freqently cited
A pictorial record of Great Western absorbed engines. Oxford Publishing, 1978. 280pp. landscape format.
A pictorial record of Great Western engines. Volume 1. [Gooch, Armstrong & Dean locomotives]. Oxford Publishing, 1975. 188pp. 523 figures (illus. & diagrs.) landscape format within main body of work.
The modesty of the introduction should be noted: further he directed the reader to the RCTS History with its many parts.
A pictorial record of Great Western engines. Volume 2. [The Churchward, Collett and Hawksworth locomotives]. Oxford Publishing, 1975. 244pp. landscape format within main body of work,

2008-08-18