The LNER Encyclopedia

Hello everyone, if you have a favourite book, or would reccommend one, post it here

Currently, I'm reading the Silmarillion by J.R.R Tolkien, set in the 1st age of Middle Earth

Ay up!

I'm a big Biggles fan - out of the closet again!!! - but also love P G Wodehouse. Comedies of manners which may explain why they're not as popular as they once were!

I've also just finished a few of M C Beaton's Agatha Raisin series. Murder mysteries with a sharp wit and more than a touch of sarcasm.

Another good one is Zoe Marriott. My better half knows her through some on-line book discussion group and we read the first one to see what all the fuss was about. We are now Hooked and waiting impatiently for the next one!

Try Mallard and the A4 class by David Macintosh, not your average dimension book, but great for the collection!

I have to admit that for my birthday last month I got a boxed set of the complete Harry Potter books - and am now half-way through them! I don't care what some people say - I enjoy them; they are great escapist fantasy!

I have what I suppose could be regarded as a sort of recommendation, based just on the appearance and promise of a book, a chat with its very interesting author, and the book's first few pages & the general 'look' of its contents (after which I purchased a copy - [ I have no connection with or promotion agreement, with the author or the publisher ] ).

This book is :
"THE SECRET LIFE OF ST. NEOTS STATION
A Microcosm Of The World It Serves"
by John Slack.
1st edition, 2010, - ISBN 978-1-84306-530-2.
The Horizon Press,
hardback, 160pp,
cover price £14-99.

Despite its title (& sub-title), it promises a much more broad-based 'picture' of the station than most treatises; the GNR from its arrival (& a NIMBY) - LNER - Nationalisation - privatisation; events at and around the station, and the effect of all this on the town, people involved, accidents and casualties and their lives and others affected, ('Days out', royalty, the TPO, 'shady dealings', 'Paine's Coal Department', 'problems of success', 'working horses', two Wartimes, the General Strike, threatened closure, electrification, etc., etc., etc.)

I'm lokking forward to a good read (when I have time! )

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You're right there Micky. It came out at just the right time during my 'teens for when my interest in the subject started to grow.

That little book, an excellent, detailed introduction to signalling by Geoffrey Kitchenside and Alan Williams, (1st edition 1963 : - I don't think it's ever appeared as separate Volumes), made it to four editions AFAIK; the the latest(?) in 1978 (cover, green with a yellow band).
Can't say I've ever heard of Ian Allan reprinting it ; (although I see used copies of most, or possibly all four, can still be found on Amazon).

But is the 'updated softback form' that you refer to, perhaps actually "Modern Signalling Handbook" by Stanley Hall (publ'r alsdo IA ; also now in its 4th edition)?
If yes, then, - although it probably seeks to fill the same role as the old book and is certainly informative, - inside I find its treatment of the subject rather different, relying a lot on perspective, simplistic line drawings in a style once used when Railnews of old always had a "Stockspot" section, some of which explained facets of signalling.
I'd also recommend the little IA sotfback book "Railway Signalling in the Age of Steam" by Michael Vanns, as a good companion to Stanley Hall's MSH, with IIRC, quite a lot of photographs.

I also find that the much bigger IA hardback book, "Two Centuries of Railway Signalling" by the same authors as the original little one, is good, using similar types of illustrations (including an expanded version of the colour-plate drawings of signal types as in the centre of the original little book) and photos to the original, but in greater number. Now in its 2nd edition, (2009? - the first was 1998) it covers a lot more about the history of the subject as well as more modern day methods, but it is a bit 'heavy' (large) with a cover price of around £20-00.

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My teenage favourite was London's Termini by Alan A Jackson.

My local library had the original hard back version with fold-out track plans.

I used to borrow the book at every opportunity, and spend hours reading the details of the construction and operation of the stations over the decades.

But my favourites were the fold-out pages. I marvelled at the complexity of the trackwork especially near Kings Cross and wish that I could be the signalman at Belle Isle with so much activity throughout the day and night.

My undoubted favourite rail book that I've read in the last decade has to be Steam Days at Haymarket by Harry Knox.
A relatively recent publication (Irwell Press, 2007), it was much recommended by several group members who'd read it.
Cheers
Robt P.

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Yes Micky, I bought the paperback version many years ago (and still have that) but was disappointed to find it didn't have the big fold out maps.

The original 1969 hardback edition is not difficult to find in decent condition by the looks of it, but I don't know if the 1985 reprint included the maps or not.

Apologies if I am 'preaching to the converted' but I was wandering round the local Waterstones at lunchtime, and was looking through the railway section - and found that there is a reprint of the Bradshaw's Guide: The 1866 Handbook, with 4 of the guides bound in one version. They had it in at £24.95 but I would hazzard a guess that it will be out cheaper elsewhere! (Amazon show that it was only released on 22 October so it is new.)

After watching Great British Railway Journeys, I plan to get a copy some time - I had a flick through it and found it great reading! (Couldn't afford it today though but may have to add it to the Christmas list!!)

strang steel wrote:Yes Micky, I bought the paperback version many years ago (and still have that) but was disappointed to find it didn't have the big fold out maps.

The original 1969 hardback edition is not difficult to find in decent condition by the looks of it, but I don't know if the 1985 reprint included the maps or not.

I've got the 1969 edition. Maps - yes. Foldouts - no. Are we sure this book ever had foldouts?

Kudu

We've wandered onto railways. One favourite of mine in years gone by is "The World's Railways and How They Work", pub Odhams (undated).

I was drawn to the double-page spread entitled "Amazing burrowing junctions - Chalk Farm-Primrose Hill Tunnels L.M.S. Main Line London". I often travelled on the electrics from Willesden Junction en route to the various terminals in London and appreciated the help the cut-away picture (enlivened by 5 trains and a light engine) gave me in understanding what was happening in this part of the journey. (Btw, I've written here on the 1950s scene in the Willesden/Old Oak area - see "A Place by the Railway" in the non-LNER railway chat section. A good while back now.)

Kudu