Britain's Big Four - Help needed to find info on book.

[easternstreak]

Well this is a rather long story, so I'll sum it up as quickly as I can.

Our school has just finished completing the new library and we were allowed to take some books for free. I managed to find a book, which is very tatty and old. It's a hardcover book, with our school logo stamped in on the front.
The name is "Britain's Big Four", by Horace Greenleaf.

Also at the very bottom of the spine is the number 385, does this mean anything?

At the moment I'm having trouble finding out more information regarding this book. I know that the book hasn't been borrowed from the school since 1977.

Does anyone know when the book was published, or how many different versions there are?

If anyone wants any pictures of the book, then simply ask.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

[strang steel]

You can usually get some info from entering the title and author into an Amazon search.

This is the page you will get for that title,

http://www.amazon.com/Britains-Big-Four ... B001K2CPKK

It would seem that the publication date was coincidental with the demise of the Big Four.

It looks quite interesting.

[easternstreak]

You can usually get some info from entering the title and author into an Amazon search.

This is the page you will get for that title,

http://www.amazon.com/Britains-Big-Four ... B001K2CPKK

It would seem that the publication date was coincidental with the demise of the Big Four.

It looks quite interesting.

Do you know what's quite funny, I tried that and it didn't tell me anything I already knew. Though I tried it on amazon uk.

Thanks for the help.

Mine's not in very good condition, plus the railway map for the LNER is missing.

[strang steel]

Yes, I must admit that I was rather confused that the Amazon .uk site had no photo and only one used copy for sale for £3.99, whereas the .com site had far more info; and yet one of the books I looked at for over $20 (+$3.99 shipping) said "shipped from the UK".

Some bookshops seem to have very unfavourable currency exchange rates.

[JASd17]

I may be wrong on this, but I thought '385' indicated a railway book in library numbering. It would then have another number after this to indicate the individual volume?

It might be specifically railway history?

John

[Saint Johnstoun]

385 is the Dewey Library Classification - I think. I seem to remember borrowing this book from the Library in the 1960s but Amazon should have provided the publisher and publication date. I'll look into this further and advise.

You have searched via Amazon which goes to the USA. You need to look at Amazon UK to get a more accurate position regarding any book available from UK suppliers.

[Mickey]

Sorry to hijack this topic page easternstreak but for some reason this topic keeps reminding me of a ''brilliant railway book'' that i first borrowed out of the secondary school library around 1969/70 of a hardback book that had about 500+ pages with every page containing x2 photographs top & bottom of the page of b&w photographs of steam locomotives of the BIG 4 plus pre-grouping & B.R. standards.

I did stumble across this book again in re-print soft back form about 10-15 years ago but unfortunately i didn't buy it and i was just wondering if anyone else knows of this book?.

[strang steel]

385 is the Dewey Library Classification - I think. I seem to remember borrowing this book from the Library in the 1960s but Amazon should have provided the publisher and publication date. I'll look into this further and advise.

You have searched via Amazon which goes to the USA. You need to look at Amazon UK to get a more accurate position regarding any book available from UK suppliers.

Actually we have searched both, but maybe we have not made that clear enough.

The point is that a search of the UK site does not bring up the UK supplied book which is listed on the US .com site for $22 plus shipping.

It seems rather strange that a book supplied from the UK on a US site should be so expensive, when a similar book supplied from the the UK on the UK site is priced at £3.99 plus shipping.

[easternstreak]

Sorry to hijack this topic page easternstreak but for some reason this topic keeps reminding me of a ''brilliant railway book'' that i first borrowed out of the secondary school library around 1969/70 of a hardback book that had about 500+ pages with every page containing x2 photographs top & bottom of the page of b&w photographs of steam locomotives of the BIG 4 plus pre-grouping & B.R. standards.

I did stumble across this book again in re-print soft back form about 10-15 years ago but unfortunately i didn't buy it and i was just wondering if anyone else knows of this book?.

no problem, though can I ask
which secondary school did you go to?
if it's all right to ask.

I've been reading through the book, and I've noticed how info regarding the lner seems to be missing for the most part. In fact the book seems to be talking most about the southern railway.

[Mickey]

Sorry to hijack this topic page easternstreak but for some reason this topic keeps reminding me of a ''brilliant railway book'' that i first borrowed out of the secondary school library around 1969/70 of a hardback book that had about 500+ pages with every page containing x2 photographs top & bottom of the page of b&w photographs of steam locomotives of the BIG 4 plus pre-grouping & B.R. standards.

I did stumble across this book again in re-print soft back form about 10-15 years ago but unfortunately i didn't buy it and i was just wondering if anyone else knows of this book?.

no problem, though can I ask
which secondary school did you go to?
if it's all right to ask.

You wouldn't know of it easternstreak if you are 14 years old (?) besides it was closed years ago and was pulled down back in the 1980s.

[easternstreak]

Sorry to hijack this topic page easternstreak but for some reason this topic keeps reminding me of a ''brilliant railway book'' that i first borrowed out of the secondary school library around 1969/70 of a hardback book that had about 500+ pages with every page containing x2 photographs top & bottom of the page of b&w photographs of steam locomotives of the BIG 4 plus pre-grouping & B.R. standards.

I did stumble across this book again in re-print soft back form about 10-15 years ago but unfortunately i didn't buy it and i was just wondering if anyone else knows of this book?.

no problem, though can I ask
which secondary school did you go to?
if it's all right to ask.

You wouldn't know of it easternstreak if you are 14 years old (?) besides it was closed years ago and was pulled down back in the 1980s.

ah fair point. just curious.

[StevieG]

... Just tried 'Goggling' "Britain's Big Four" with "Greenleaf", which resulted in this :- http://www.google.co.uk/search?as_q=gre ... 89&bih=421 .

While one of the results for Amazon therein was for the used £3-99 example "(hardcover)", another, for "(paperback)" was http://www.amazon.co.uk/BritainS-Big-Fo ... B00182DMOA , which states "Currently unavailable", but does show publisher and a year of publishing "(Winchester Publications (1948)").

Other results therein show copies which have been on eBay this year, and references in bookseller sites, such as Antiqbook, abebooks, etc.