Shop Products

from Rheidol Review - Vale of Rheidol Railway Newsletter Issue 2 - 2021

Engines from our Collection

This volume covers the important main line section of line between Carmarthen and Fishguard Harbour, the terminus station opening in 1906 and replacing New Milford (later Neyland) as the previous main line terminus. In 1909 Cunard passenger liners between New York and Liverpool began calling at Fishguard and this book contains a fascinating account of this working lasting 3-4 years which saw fast connecting trains running to Paddington and the Continent via Dover. There were also important branches coming off this line at Whitland (for Pembroke Dock) and also to Cardigan, though the latter was closed in the Beeching cuts of 1964. The book affords a detailed look at Whitland where the rail service has been completely transformed since the end of steam. We see the Milk services that ran from Whitland (as well as Carmarthen) and the Fish services from Milford Haven, as well as the Oil Trains which will feature in a later volume.

Hardback with dust jacket, 216 pages, 54 colour & 366 black and white illustrations & maps

£30.00

DIESEL HYDRAULICS: A COLOUR RETROSPECTIVE BY ANDREW VINES

In this new book photographer and diesel hydraulic enthusiast Andrew Vines takes a retrospective pictorial look at all of the classes of locomotives that were built for the Western Region of British Railways. Destined to have short lives in service, they have been the subject of much discussion and interest since their demise and have achieved near mythical status in the minds of some enthusiasts.

This book does not repeat the several detailed histories that have been written on these locomotives, but rather gives an informed commentary and much information on what they were about, where they operated and the types of traffic that they handled.

The photographs have with a few exceptions not been seen in print before. They feature the work of some well known photographers, but also many unknown recorders who troubled to point their cameras at what was then the largely unloved modern part of a rapidly changing scene.

Hardback, 128 pages, colour photographs

£23.95

This is far from a boring random study with very little research, instead it has been fastidiously put together with full reference and examination of the man and his time on the railway from the period just before Gresley’s death and the way in which he handed the batten on to Arthur Peppercorn. after the tumultuous war years

Along the way the author brings to life in a truly absorbing manner this important wartime period and how the effects of the conflict steered his judgements, advice and design criteria in a way we think has never been seen before. It is no wonder it was applauded by what many would recognise as potentially Edward Thompson’s perhaps harshest critics as devotees of Sir Nigel Gresley’s work from members of the Gresley Society.

We examine each of Thompson’s own designs, and the work carried out on his predecessor’s locomotives to bring the best out them and the resources available at the time.

£34.95

UNFINISHED LINES BY MARK YONGE

Mark Yonge had, for many years, wanted to write a book about railway projects that were started but never completed. The physical evidence of these works throughout England although rapidly vanishing, can still be seen in places to this day. The reader can view several examples which include viaducts, earthworks, bridges, partially completed tunnels, an abandoned tunnel boring machine and the beginnings of a major London airport. Behind all these tales are stories of intrigue, manipulation, interference by the armed forces and sometimes great sadness brought about by personal ambition and ruin.

These remaining assets are in the main, not protected by legislation and are thus at risk of demolition at any time. It is to be hoped that this record of their existence in the 2020s may go a little way towards recording some of our more interesting and neglected features of railway history for the benefit of future generations.

£30.00

The story of O V Bulleid’s ‘Leader’ class is one that simply refuses to lie down, continuing to be a source of debate and controversy. Was this the great innovation that would have taken the steam locomotive to unheard of levels of sophistication and efficiency, or a folie de grandeur on the part of an undoubtedly creative, charismatic yet maverick engineer, which should never have been countenanced or financed by his superiors? Seventy years after the last examples of these ill-fated locomotives were scrapped, the controversy surrounding them still rumbles on and fascination with the project among railway enthusiasts is unabated.

Having written previously on the subject, author Kevin Robertson has continued his research into the ‘Leader’ class and unearthed much new material from a variety of sources which is presented here for the first time. Whilst not likely to have changed the end result, much new light is shed as to how that decision was arrived at. New sources have been explored that were not available previously and these add greatly to our understanding of how the project was managed, adding flavour and at times even comedy to the events recounted.

Hardback, 368 pages, approximately 300 illustrations

£30.00

FINAL JOURNEY: THE UNTOLD STORY OF FUNERAL TRAINS

This new history reveals the previously untold story of why and how trains have been used to transport the dead, enabling their burial in a place of significance to the bereaved. Profusely illustrated with many images, some never previously published, Nicolas Wheatley’s work details how the mainline railways carried out this important yet often hidden work from the Victorian age to the 1980s, as well as how ceremonial funeral transport continues on heritage railways today. From royalty, aristocrats and other VIPs (including Sir Winston Churchill and the Unknown Warrior) to victims of accidents and ordinary people, Final Journey explores the way in which these people travelled for the last time by train before being laid to rest.