 |
Journal of the Railway & Canal Historical
Society 2017
Volume 39 Part 1 |
No 228 March 2017
'The Heathcoat Works outing to Teignmouth' (detail of painting by W P Key)
(National Trust Images)
see pp 31-41)
Robert F Hartley. George Stephenson - the railway surveys. Part 2 : 1832-1848. 2-12
David Parry. Murray Gladstone : George Stephenson's assistant in Chester - 13
Pat Jones. The inception and demise of the Roman Fossdike: a postscript - 24
Correspondence 29
The railway signalman (1936) 29
To Teignmouth for the day: a Heathcoat factory excursion from Tiverton - Tim Edmonds 31
The Leominster Canal: derelict, abandoned or closed? - David Slater 42
The location of Edward Jones's 1799 tram road : an assessment based on contemporary correspondence - Bryan Morgan 45
Reviews 53
Railways in the Landscape: how they transformed the
face of Britain. Gordon Biddle. Bamsley: Pen & Sword. 216pp,
147 illustrations (98 colour), Reviewed by Stephen Rowson.
No-one is better suited than Gordon Biddle (one of our Society's founding
members) to produce this compact readable survey of the visual impact that
railways have had on the British landscape. His preface and comprehensive
bibliography brilliantly place the book in context. In five themed chapters
he describes 'Transforming the rural scene' from the birth of railways, covering
routes, civil engineering, viaducts and tunnel portals; 'Country stations
and buildings' (houses, signal boxes, engine sheds and yards), explaining
how vernacular architecture using local materials in the early period gave
way to company standard designs using ubiquitous materials now available
because ofrailway transport and then to a third period towards the end of
the nineteenth century that was born in reaction to standardised fashions
and mass-production; 'The coast', covering the development of resorts and
railway ports; 'Townscapes' (perhaps the best chapter), analysing how railways
were allowed into London and provincial towns and cities, the siting of termini,
goods yards and warehouses and the corresponding development of suburbs;
and 'Places the railways made', recognising the difference between new railway
towns, railway villages and the more common occurrence of railway enclaves
in existing towns. Themes are drawn from many examples each one described
assertively within the text from the author's encyclopaedic critical knowledge
of his subject. Illustrations, without exception, dramatically support the
text. The book's usability is enhanced by an overall feeling that Biddle
is describing the now and not what used to be; ifhe does mention a building
or feature that has gone then he tells us, but generally he describes what
is still there to be seen. A sixth, short, chapter points out how abandoned
railways continue to mould the landscape and how some have defined later
road building projects. The seventh chapter then deals, with equal relevance,
with the modem railway scene from the 1923 grouping to the present, including
Crossrail and the plans for HS2 (whose impact on the landscape, Biddle comments,
'will certainly be far less than that of the great gash made by the M40 motorway
through the same area, accompanied by continuous traffic noise'). A final
chapter 'A Case Study of Landscape Change' compares in some detail the present
day route of the former London & Birmingham Railway from Euston with
the illustrations by J C Bourne at the time of its construction. Whilst the
Euston Arch is gone, the terminus at Birmingham is conveniently the surviving
Curzon Street which allows this lovingly written book to finish with another
positive mention of the future HS2.
Cover images:
Front: Back: Early Great North of Scotland Railway buses (from Mike Mitchell, Great North
of Scotland Road Services, reviewed on pp 53-4)
Volume 39 Part 2
Grahame Boyes. The business of running a canal: evidence from the Peak Forest Canal. 66-72
Reg Davies. Opportunity, isolation and prejudice: black workers on
British Railways, 1948-1997. 73-
Essay originally submitted in 2002 for Certificate course at the Institute
of Railway Studies.
Tim Edmonds. Bradley Gate: myth and mystery at Blue Anchor station. 88-95.
David Slater. LlDAR and QGIS : modern technology applied to the Leominster Canal. 96-104
Brian J. Goggin. The sinking of the Longford. 105-13.
Alan M Levitt. A further means for financing canals (and other works) .114-16.
Obituary: Professor John Armstrong. 117
Reviews 118-28
The railway dilemma: the perpetual problems of ownership, costs and
control . Sim Harris. Ian Allan, 2016. 288 pp, 8 colour plates,
hardback, Reviewed by Mark Casson
The railway dilemma, as described in this book, is that a modern
public-service passenger railway network can never be profitable. The external
benefits it generates — serving commuters, reducing road congestion
and so on — make it indispensable, however. The overhead costs of the
railway system are enormous but the additional coast of filling an empty
seat on a train is very small. The railway faces a pricing dilemma —
whether to charge high or low —which is only partially resolved through
discriminatory pricing or 'market segmentation'.
The author shows that politicians have always found it difficult to choose
between a profitable railway and a public service one. A profitable railway
system today would be very small —a collection of isolated freight lines
and a few passenger routes connecting airports with nearby cities. Not even
InterCity was ever really profitable, the author contends. At the moment
the UK railway system is expanding —traffic is growing and infrastructure
is being enhanced. Private train operators are doing reasonably well but
etwork Rail is accumulating massive losses. Track access charges are low
to encourage franchise bidders, so revenue is weak, whilst construction budgets
are out of control. Treasury borrowing is close to the limit, and the accounting
value placed on the loss-making network is highly dubious, to say the least.
The author states the dilemma very clearly. The focus is exclusively on the
UK. The book is well written, entertaining and highly informative. The historical
perspective, which provides the main body of the book, is based on a wide
range of source material. The book will appeal particularly to readers interested
in government transport policy, railway regulation and management, and the
history of privatised and nationalised railway systems.
Man of iron: Thomas Telford and the building of
Britain. Julian Glover. Bloomsbury, 2017, 416 pp, 24
illustrations, 1 map, hardback, Reviewed by Peter Brown. 118
Of all the biographies of Telford, this is the one which most vividly
portrays the man: incredibly hard-working, travelling vast distances in all
weathers, robust, restless, driven. But also good company, able to mix in
all levels of society, but with no intimates or close family.
Whilst his appointment to major projects owed much to influential men —
such as Sir William Pulteney (an acquaintance from Eskdale) with regards
to his Shropshire and his early Scottish works, Sir Henry Parnell (a leading
Irish MP) for the Holyhead Road, and Nicholas Vansittart (Chancellor of the
Exchequer 1812-22) for his government-financed works generally — his
achievements were the result of his own efforts. Proper credit is given to
the loyal group of men Telford appointed to supervise works and to his faithful
contractors. He chose well, and whilst not falling into the trap of
micro-managing, nevertheless kept closely involved through extensive
correspondence and periodic personal inspection. Due credit is also given
to the administrative colleagues with whom Telford worked, especially John
Rickman and James Hope. No other biography has the depth of study of letters
to and from Telford, or of the mentions of him in other people's writings.
Nor has any other biography made such a good case for appreciating Telford
as a town planner.
As the author was from 2012 a special advisor to the government on transport,
I had hoped for a special insight into the wider strategic issues but was
rather disappointed. For example, when comparing Telford's and McAdam's
recommendations concerning road-building, he concludes that there is no way
of resolving such disputes because 'they are disputes about accountancy,
not civil engineering'. The author was a Guardian columnist before
being appointed David Cameron's chief speechwriter. It is therefore no surprise
that this book is fluently written, well deserving its becoming a Radio 4
'Book of the Week'. However, I sometimes found myself wishing for the more
straightforward prose of Anthony Burton's Thomas Telford: master builder
of roads & canals (1999). Burton also generally gives more information
about the works themselves. For a professional engineer's assessment, The
Story of Telford by Sir Alexander Gibb (1935) is still the best. But
Glover's book would be my recommendation for the non-specialist reader.
British Rail designed 1948-97. David Lawrence.
Ian Allan, 2016. 272 pp, approx 600 illustrations (many colour),
hardback. Reviewed by Kevin Jones. 119
'Designed' should perhaps be in bold print: this is a book about how
external design consultants created the British Rail image. The Corporate
Identity Manual of 1965 may be regarded as being at the heart of the study.
A walk past our local station on a single track branch line is dominated
by the large twin arrow logo: Gerry Barney's work is at least comparable
with the London Transport roundel. The Manual is not considered until well
past the middle of the book, yet all is either leading towards it, or (sadly)
away from it. It included specific colours for rolling stock, motive power
units, ships, fabrics, uniforms (including vile headgear for females) and
signage including lettering. For a time nothing escaped.
The book is divided into six chapters: (1) a brief introduction; (2) branding
the nationalised railway; (3) station architecture 1948-85; (4) Design Panel
1956-60; (5) design researched 1960-81; (6) the new look 1982-97. There follow
notes to the text; a glossary of design terms; a glossary of colours; reference
sources; and an excellent index.
A great many individuals are mentioned, including E G M Wilkes and Peter
Ashmore; Sir Kenneth Grange who refined the shape of the High Speed Train
power cars almost single-handedly with the aid of the Imperial College wind
tunnel; Jane Priestman, a czarina for design; and Nicholas Grimshaw whose
Waterloo International brought central Paris to central London. The professional
railwaymen do rather less well. Chris Green is acknowledged for the brief
flowering of Network SouthEast which to those who experienced it adjusted
their perceptions of travel in the Greater London Area
James Ness, General Manager of the Scottish Region, is given brief mention
in connection with the Glasgow Blue Trains, but fails to be acknowledged
for the Inter-City diesel multiple units. George Dow, who worked hard to
establish a corporate identity on the London Midland Region, is ignored.
Riddles' standard locomotives were a misconceived design statement, but the
pictorial images on pages 36 and 37 fail to produce a coherent picture: a
book on design deserves better.
Too many of the illustrations are based on Modern Railways covers
which fail as icons for excellence. Nevertheless, as Sir Alex Moulton once
said, 'If it looks right, it probably is right' and this probably encapsulates
the aims of those industrial designers who sought to produce a simpler to
use and more attractive railway system.
Lewes & East Grinstead Railway — the Bluebell Line. Richard
G. Long. Ian Allan, 2016. 112 pp, 171 photographs (66 colour),
5 maps & plans, hardback, Reviewed by Matthew Searle.
A curate's egg of a book, this opens with a reasonably detailed account
of the line's construction and description of the stations (including the
Ardingly branch). Five pages then cover its commercial working life before
a comprehensive discussion of its closures (plural) is reached. More than
the last third of the volume is devoted to the line's life as a . heritage
railway. Anyone requiring a thorough history of the line's operation in
pre-closure times should consult Klaus Marx's An illustrated history of
the Lewes & East Grinstead Railway from the same publisher in a similar
format (2000) and referred to in the bibliography of the current work, which
is best regarded as a supplement to it.
Cover images:
Front: The seal of the Peak Forest Canal Company, 1794 (see pp 66-72)
Back: (upper)An imaginary reconstruction by Edward Paget-Tomlinson of a PB&SSR
train crossing above road works just south of Beddgelert had the line been completed in
1910 as an electrified link (from John Manners, Ghosts of Aberglaslyn: the Portmadoc,
Beddgelert & South Snowdon Railway, reviewed on p 123); (lower) Milverton station
nearing completion circa 1870 (from Freddie Huxtable, The Taunton to Barnstaple line:
a history of the Devon & Somerset Railway, vol1, reviewed on p 122)
Brian J, Hudson. Transport and travel in the world of Arnold Bennett.
130-42.
An analysis of Arnold Bennett's writings (novels, essays, etc) both
as portrayed in the media and through interpretation of Bennett's life: for
instance, he was both a confirmed walker and its assistance to creative writing
and as an owner of motor cars, both as a driver and as one who employed a
chauffeur. Raiway travel enabled escape from the Five Towns into other areas,
but he was able to appreciate how visitors to the Potteries would be struck
by the filth. Several references are made to Ian Carter's Railways and
culture. Manchester Unviertsity Press, 2002
Nicholas Hammond. Could this be one of Joseph Boughey's 'new directions
of waterway history', 142-55.
37 English and French bridges covering 1763 to 1831 are examined to
eestablish a typology with a view to establishing a criterion to classify
canal bridges.
Maxwell Craven. The LMS School of Transport, Derby;
with an Introduction by Graham H. Wild. 156-61.
William H. Hamlyn
was the architect who was also responsible for the rebuilt
Leeds station and Queen's Hotel.
Richard Dean. Churnet valley conundrums. 162-8.
Robert Humm. Dudley Docker and the railways.
176-86.
Frank Dudley Docker was a very powerful business man who was born
on 26 August 1862 in Birmingham, the youngest son of a successful solicitor.
He attenderd King Edward VI Grammar School but did not like legal work in
his father's practice. He excelled at cricket. In 1881 he set up Docker Bros.
with his elder brother William to supply varnishes for bicycle frames, and
metal furniture and tools. By 1886 a third brother, Ludford Charles
had joined the business and when their father died his bequests were added
to the company's finances and the company moved to a larger factory in Smethwick
which employed 16. This enabled the company to supply high quality
paints and varnishes to the railways and rolling stock supply companies.
In 1899 Dudley Docker became a director of the Patent Shaft & Axletree
Company of Wednesbury, at that time Britain's largest supplier of steel wheel
and axle sets to the rolling stock industry. In 1900 he bacame a director
of W.S. Laycock, another Black Country manufacturer of rolling stock
components.
During 1901-2 he and his brother Ludford assisted in creating a large combine
consisting of the Oldbury Carriage & Wagon Works, Brpwn Marshalls &
Co. Ltd., Metropolitan Railway Carriage & Wagon Co. Ltd., Lancaster Carriage
& Wagon Co. Ltd., and Ashbury Railway Carriage & Iron Co. Ltd..
The merged company was known as Metropolitan Amalgamated Railway Carriage
& Wagon Co. and Dudley Docker was elected its chairman, a post he held
for 17 years. In November 1902 the Patent Shaft & Axletree Company was
steered into the new combine which gave it its own steel-making capacity.
In 1912 the title was changed to Metropolitan Carriage, Wagon &
Finance Co. (MCWF). Many wagon users had either hired them or
bought them on hire purchase. It was posible for the combine to operate quickly
on a large scale: 1500 large steel box vans werre supplied to the Japanese
Government during the Russo-Japanese War. Two works were closed: Brown Marshall's
Britannia Works (soldto Wolseley Motorcar Co. and the Lancaster factory.
British Westinghouse, wwith a huge factory at Trafford Park became a problem
during WW1. Its general manager was born in Germany and it was a time of
extreme xenophobia. The Board of Trade decided it should brought under British
control and this was engineered through Electrical Holdings Ltd jointly owned
by MCWF and Vickers. For a time Docker served on the Vicker board and received
preference shares which he sold at the height of the post-war boom.
Docker sat on several railway boards: the Stratford-upon-Avon & Midland
Junction probably followed a rolling stock hiring agreement in 1909. The
others were much more serious and reflected Docker's growing interest in
electric traction. A seat on the board of the Metropolitan Railway: at that
time the Metropolitan Railway was buying new electric locomotives from Metro-Vick
in 1921-2. He remained on the board until thge railway was taken over by
the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933, but Docker ensured that the
Metropolitan Railway Country Estates remained outwith the LPTB.
Shortly after WW1 Docker joined the board of the London, Brighton & South
Coast Railway which had been electrifying iits suburban services on
single phase overhead at 6700 volts AC. Sir Philip Dawson was the consulting
electrical engineer and he could foresee electrification to Brighton. He
graduated to the board of the Southern Railway where there was a contest
between Sir William Forbes of the Brighton and Sir Herbert Walker, late of
the LSWR which had opted for third rail electrification. Docker supported
Walker and remained on the board until 1938 when Walker took his place.
In 1916 Cammell-Laird had built and managed the National Projectile Factory
in Notttingham on behalf of the Government. After the armistice it was bought
outright by Cammell-Laird to manufacture steel rolling stock. The Midland
Railway Carriage & Wagon Co. was acquired and has/had continued to fuction
as an autonomous concern. In 1923 the Leeds Forge which had acquired the
Bristol Carriage & Wagon works was taken over by Cammell-Laird.
In the middle 1920s Vickers were in crisis and saw no future in electrical
engineering and rolling stock and bought Metropolitan-Vickers at a knock
down price and promptly resold it, less MCWF to International General Electric
of the USA. In 1929 MCWF and the Cammell-Laird rolling stock intersts merged
to form Metro-Cammell This led to the closure of the Nottingham plant and
Leeds Forge. These actions led to him not receiving a peerage.
In December 1921 Elrafin (Electrical & Railway Finance Corporation) was
founded as a private form of investment bank. This probably invested in
British-owned Argentinian and Uruguayan railways and establiished links with
Sir Edward Manville and with Sir Follett Holt: the latter with broad interessts
in South American railways.
He invested in a small steelworks called Manage in Belgium as lower costs
outweighed distance. He also invested in Sofina which had railway and tramway
interests in Argentina, He died from Ludwig's angina in June 1944.
Reviews. 188-200
William Fairbairn: the experimental engineer —
a study in mid 19th-century engineering. Richard Byrom. Market
Drayton: Railway & Canal Historical Society, 2017. Reviewed by David
Greenfield.
The remarkable progress of William Fairbairn (1789-1874) from apprentice
millwright to one of the nineteenth century's greatest engineers encompassed
a wide range of engineering activities. Richard Byrom's timely new study
explores not only Fairbairn's life and work during a hectic era of invention,
innovation and rapid advances in technology, but also the mixed fortunes
of the engineering company that he founded, and the extent of his influence
on contemporary and later engineers.
The book's approach is broadly chronological, and emphasises the discrete
phases of Fairbairn's life. Each chapter opens with an introduction which
sets the scene, and concludes with a discussion and summary of the main topics.
The first chapter examines Fairbairn 's life up to 1817, from childhood in
Roxburghshire to his arrival in Manchester where he would based for the rest
of his life. Chapter 2 covers his fifteen-year long millwrighting partnership
with James Lillie, when Fairbairn's improvements in water power technology,
based on experiment and testing, introduced him to a network of leading engineers
and scientists. One consequence of this in the mid-1820s was the start of
his twenty-year long collaboration with Eaton Hodgkinson on a pioneering
programme of materials testing and experimental work on cast and wrought
ironwork for structural use.
Chapter 3 looks at the nine years following the dissolution of his partnership
with Lillie in 1832. Fairbairn carried on in business as sole proprietor
and expanded his field of work into steam engines, boilers and ships. In
the early 1840s some of his sons joined him as partners in what became a
family business, William Fairbairn & Sons. Chapters 4 and 5 examine the
circumstances and dynamics that influenced the fortunes of the business over
the twelve years up to 1854. Mill-building remained the core business, but
was now augmented by locomotive construction and wrought-iron tubular bridges
and cranes. Fairbairn's lifelong commitment to educating and training his
employees is dealt with in Chapter 6. He never 'retired' at 65 in the
conventional use of the word and Chapter 7 describes how he spent the last
twenty years of his life, as active as ever. Chapter 8 relates the sad story
of the decline and demise of the family business.
Copious chapter end notes and an extensive bibliography, augmented by tables
and lists, provide an exceptionally rich resource for further reading and
research. Of particular interest are the details of the astonishing numbers
of mill buildings, waterwheels, steam engines, ships, locomotives, bridges
and cranes which are listed in the appendices as being attributed to Fairbairn.
The author's target readership is broad — from academic historians and
practising engineers of many disciplines to the countless engineering history
and heritage enthusiasts. Likewise, the author acknowledges that many readers
will have specialist interests, while his subject matter itself covers a
very broad spectrum; members of the Society should perhaps bear that in mind.
Richard Byrom suggests that those who have no wish or inclination to read
the whole book can catch its gist by merely reading the introductions and
conclusions to each chapter. This may be so, but there is much, much more
to be gained by following his masterly account of Fairbairn 's life and work
from humble beginnings to a hero's funeral attended by thousands of fellow
Mancunians.
The trouble with canals. John Liley. Audlem: Canal Book Shop,
2017. 202 pp, 170 photographs (45 colour), drawing, 2 maps, softback,
Reviewed by Joseph Boughey. 192
In a way this accompanies the author's early Journeys of the Swan
(1971), which was republished in 2015, also by the Canal Book Shop; its design
is similar to the present book. Mr Liley has known canals for 70 years since
his first encounters with the canals in Ashton, and this may perhaps be best
described as his memoirs. Much of this is episodic, embodying his trenchant
views on waterways scenes in Britain and continental Europe that have greatly
changed in his time. His thesis, lightly worn, seems to be that a lack of
belief in freight carriage on British canals has hastened the decline in
carrying, coupled with ignorance about waterways development in France and
the Low Countries. 'The Trouble With Canals', he concludes, is that they
'are too undemonstrative for their own good'.
This view underlies his accounts of various involvements, notably writing
for, and then editing, Motor Boat and Yachting, from the early 1960s
to the mid-1970s; much of his memoir focuses on this period. With vivid portraits
of colleagues on the magazine, he stresses the pressure to find material,
some of which he provided by accounts of trips in the narrow boat
Swan. His amusingly irreverent style shows through in this memoir,
with insightful pen portraits of people like the Inland Waterways Association
leaders Robert Aickman and Lionel Munk, and turns of phrase, like those
describing Thames boat clubs, both pithy and gently barbed.
The appeal of this book to a transport history audience must be limited to
those who know a fair amount about waterways history in the period since
the 1950s, as it seems to assume a background knowledge of general events.
For those who have such knowledge, this may well prove highly entertaining,
with many insights.
The LMS Turbomotive: from evolution to legacy.
Jeremy Clements and Kevin Robertson. Manchester: Crecy Publishing,
2017. 159 pp, approx 160 illustrations (including diagrams and a few
in colour), hardback. 192
The Stanier direct-drive turbine locomotive, and its related Swedish
locomotives, were amongst the very few non-reciprocating steam locomotives
to achieve entry into revenue earning service. The book is structured as
follows: a brief introduction; the innovation challenge (a partial examination
of unconventional steam locomotives); turbine locomotive development (Reid
Ramsay steam turbine electric locomotive; Reid-Macleod steam turbine and
Ramsay turbo-electric); Ljungstrorn turbine; Stanier at the LMS; Turbomotive:
conception and design; maintenance and modifications; operating performance;
rebuild and tragedy; Philadelphia connection; metamorphosis; concluding
assessment.
The text of chapter 4 sets out the financial and managerial framework within
which Stanier had to operate and is a sensible prelude to what would be a
bold experiment; unfortunately, many of the illustrations associated with
it add little to the narrative. On the other hand most of the other illustrations
are highly informative and excellently reproduced: chapter 3 is especially
noteworthy in this respect. Chapter 8 covers the rebuilding of Turbomotive
into the reciprocating Pacific named Princess Anne which was damaged beyond
repair in the Harrow &Wealdstone accident. The Philadelphia connection
covers turbine locomotive development in the United States and chapter 10
covers gas turbine development, including research into a coal-burning variant.
Excellent use is made of Roland Bond's Institution of Locomotive Engineers
paper, including a reproduction of the discussion which followed, but the
contribution of Sir Henry Guy (of Metropolitan Vickers) to the turbine design
is underplayed. Two omissions must also be noted. There is no mention of
the key Heilmann high-speed reciprocating-engined electric locomotive, nor
of the LM S tentative 'might have been' turbine electric condensing locomotive
with Lamont boiler featured in Robin Barnes' Locomotives that never were
with the blessing of E S Cox. evertheless, this is a good account of a
significant experiment.
The Swansea Vale Railway: a Midland Railway outpost John Miles,
Keri Thomas and Tudor Watkins. Lydney: Lightmoor Press, 2017.
264 pp, 453 illustrations, hardback, Reviewed by Richard Coulthurst
.193
The Swansea Vale Railway, formed in 1845, was based on the earlier
Scott's tramroad and was initially a local line intended to serve the collieries
and copper smelting works in the Tawe valley. An extension line to Brynamman
was opened in stages from 1852 to 1864 and a loop line through Morriston
followed in 1875. Swansea is normally thought of as Great Western territory
but in the nineteenth century the port and non-ferrous metals industry was
proving attractive to the other main line railways. The Midland Railway saw
the opportunity of achieving their objective of reaching the city by coming
via Hereford and Brecon and taking over the Swansea Vale Railway as well
as using their running rights over the Neath & Brecon Railway. From the
passenger point of view this was never particularly successful and the through
trains that were provided soon ceased with the line reverting to a purely
local service which ceased in 1950. Freight traffic was rather more successful
with the output from the metal works in Swansea heading for the factories
of Birmingham. This is a greatly enlarged edition of a book first published
by the Welsh Railways Research Circle in 2004. The first edition gave only
a brief history of the line and concentrated on providing an illustrated
account as the authors believed the someone else was preparing a more detailed
book but this did not appear. The publishers and printers of this edition
should be congratulated on the high quality of its presentation.
Vinter's railway gazetteer: a guide to Britain's old railways that
you can walk or cycle. 2nd edition, Jeff Vinter. Stroud: The
History Press, 2017. 167 pp,117 photos (64 colour), 4 maps, softback,
Reviewed by Davld Pedley. 193
Jeff Vinter has a lifetime involvement with walking and railways,
especially as a former chairman of Railway Ramblers. This book grew from
his early compilations. It incorporates the first professional edition in
2011 with additional entries and a large number of additional photographs.
There are many existing books of selected railway walks but this volume aims
to be comprehensive whilst basically sticking to what it says on the cover.
Firstly, therefore, it is a gazetteer, and entries are by country (including
the Republic of Ireland) and county. They are short and to the point. Users
are expected to go to a general area to find a walk, so there is no index
which would be useful to interested non-walkers. Ordnance Survey map references
are given to all entries and there are no locational maps for casual
identification. Details given are line opening, means of access and surface
quality, extent, interesting features, where there are deviations from the
former railway, and any continuation walks. Secondly, it relates to walking
and cycling. Paths under two miles may be of railway interest but are generally
excluded as not providing a sufficient exercise environment, although some
county entries are preceded by brief details of non-conforming sites or path
proposals of general interest. Four vignettes, oddly interspersed amongst
the entries, are provided as to the general history of closures, re-use,
restoration and cost/benefits. Further specific background information is
given in the many copious captions to photographs which are all nevertheless
relevant to the basic object of walkability. Regular updating will, of course,
be required - thanks in no small part to the author's efforts to promote
the creation of new public paths. This book is exemplary for its intended
use.