Railways of Southern California

Railways of Southern California written by Colin J. Marsden and published

by Key Publishing - £30.00 - Hardback - Pages 160

Passing through some of the most picturesque scenery in the world, several main

routes traverse Southern California. Most are freight corridors, but there are a handful

of long-distance passenger services, primarily worked by Amtrak. Some of the long-

distance and heavy freight services can be powered by up to ten locomotives, equating

to around 50,000hp. One of the most scenic routes is on the Union Pacific-owned track

between Mojave and Bakersfield, which climbs over the Tehachapi Mountains, reaching

a height of over 4,000ft above sea level, requiring locos to work hard on the climb either

side of the line’s summit. The route over Cajon, one of the busiest freight routes in the

world, is also covered, as well as the routes between Barstow and Needles, the central

California line, and the highly photogenic Pacific “Surfliner” route between Los Angeles

and San Diego. Lavishly illustrated with 200 images, this book is divided into the main

routes in the area, showing the diversity in scenery and train types found. With informative

captions explaining the locos, their routes, and the best places for rail enthusiasts to

see these trains for themselves, this is the ultimate guide to the railways of Southern

California.

I jumped at the chance of reading and reviewing this book mainly because I love anything American, trains and landscape photography and this book combines all of those. The sight of American trains moving along against the back drop of the American wilderness just in my opinion looks glorious and picturesque. This book look at all different kinds of rail transport from freight to Amtrak passenger train transport to industrial rail transport working in industry. So the book has around 200 photos with an image of a train in movement with the backdrop of the train going through a town, landscape or working in an industrial scene. So you have the beautiful picture but there is a couple of paragraphs accompanying each picture usually setting the scene or a few details about the locomotive in the picture. But what I enjoy is the fact that there isn’t too much info, the balance has been struck with picture and info, so it doesn’t get too technical. A thoroughly good, interesting and beautiful book, most definitely a book to recommend to others, ideal for the model maker, photographer or train fan.

British Transport Police - A Definitive History of the Early Years & Subsequent Development

British Transport Police - A Definitive History of the Early Years & Subsequent

Development written by Malcolm Clegg and published by Pen & Sword Books

- £25 - Hardback - Pages 256

This book traces the history of the British Transport Police, the National Police Force

responsible for policing the railways of England, Scotland and Wales. The roots of

the Force go back almost 200 years, starting with the development of the railways

during the Nineteenth Century. Hundreds of railway companies were founded and

although mergers and amalgamations took place, by the end of the century, well over

100 railway companies were operating, most of which employed railway policemen.

The first railway policemen were recruited to work on the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1826. Other railway companies quickly followed and by the 1850s, railway policemen with their smart uniforms and top hats were a common sight on Britain’s railways.

During the Twentieth Century, railway companies continued to merge before being nationalised in 1948. The following year, the British Transport Commission (BTC) was created to oversee not only the newly nationalised railway network, but also the nation’s docks, shipping, inland waterways, road transport, road haulage and other companies.

Also in 1949, the British Transport Commission Police (BTC Police) was created to take over the policing of these newly nationalised institutions. All the former railway, dock and canal police forces were then absorbed into the new BTC Police Force.

The BTC was abolished in 1962, having incurred serious financial losses. The BTC Police was renamed the British Transport Police in 1963 and has continued to operate ever since. It no longer polices the docks, harbours and canals for reasons outlined in this book.

Well this was an interesting book, and quite a revealing book in that I learnt quite a bit about another part of the police force and how it has progressed over the years. I suppose to today, that we would generally think of the British Transport Police as being London centric, but it certainly didn’t start out that way, in fact its origins were in the north of the country working for specific companies. It was also intriguing to learn that it expanded its scope to include not just railways but places like docks, canals and the road network too. The book also explains the development of these and eventually the demise really as these specific workplaces were then bought under regional forces.

The book also looks into different types of crimes encountered too or those that were specific to transport hub type places. The author has done a really good job in setting this book with plenty of good level research and detail. I’ve learnt a lot from this book and it was nice to read a book about the police that was different to ‘Jack the Ripper’ and murder cases. The back of the book has lot of additional information too which I found quite moving but good to learn about. This has been a brilliant book to read and would happily recommend it to anyone, especially if you were considering joining the police force. 

The Great Thorpe Railway Disaster of 1874

The Great Thorpe Railway Disaster of 1874 written by Phyllida Scrivens and

published by Pen & Sword Books - £19.99 - Hardback - Pages 216

The Great Thorpe Railway Disaster of 1874 is the third title from Norwich writer and

biographer Phyllida Scrivens, who lives less than half a mile from the site of the fatal

collision.

At Norwich Station on 10 September 1874, a momentary misunderstanding between the Night Inspector and young Telegraph Clerk resulted in an inevitable head-on collision. The residents of the picturesque riverside village of Thorpe-Next-Norwich were shocked by a ‘deafening peal of thunder’, sending them running through the driving rain towards a scene of destruction. Surgeons were summoned from the city, as the dead, dying and injured were taken to a near-by inn and boatyard. Every class of Victorian society was travelling that night, including ex-soldiers, landowners, clergymen, doctors, seamstresses, saddlers, domestic servants and a beautiful heiress.

For many months local and national newspapers followed the story, publishing details of subsequent deaths, manslaughter trial and outcomes of record-breaking compensation claims. The Board of Trade Inquiry concluded that it was ‘the most serious collision between trains meeting one another on a single line of rails […] that has yet been experienced in this country.’

Using extensive research, non-fiction narrative, informed speculation and dramatised events, Phyllida Scrivens pays tribute to the 28 men, women and children who died, revealing the personal stories behind the names, hitherto only recorded as a list.

I’ve been reading this book during the unfortunate events of the train crash in Salisbury, luckily no one was killed in that. But this story, of the Great Thorpe Railway Disaster in 1874, sadly there were a large number of people killed, 28 men, women and children. So actually the first thing that struck me was the fact that how well trains are built now and how the safety on the railway system has greatly changed since then. This book is written in a report-type style in that it sets out the scene, looks at the moments to impact, the actual collision and then looks into the aftermath and the following days and conclusions. A lot of local research and trawling through many documents has gone on by the author Phyllida Scrivens, who has produced a fascinating read. I enjoyed the way this book was written and would be happy to recommend this one to others.

The History of the London Underground Map

The History of the London Underground Map written by Caroline Roope

and published by Pen & Sword Books - £20 - Hardback - Pages 216

Few transportation maps can boast the pedigree that London’s iconic ‘Tube’ map

can. Sported on t-shirts, keyrings, duvet covers, and most recently, downloaded

an astonishing twenty million times in app form, the map remains a long-standing

icon of British design and ingenuity. Hailed by the art and design community as a

cultural artefact, it has also inspired other culturally important pieces of artwork,

and in 2006 was voted second in BBC 2’s Great British Design Test.

But it almost didn’t make it out of the notepad it was designed in.

The story of how the Underground map evolved is almost as troubled and fraught with complexities as the transport network it represents. Mapping the Underground was not for the faint-hearted – it rapidly became a source of frustration, and in some cases obsession – often driving its custodians to the point of distraction. The solution, when eventually found, would not only revolutionise the movement of people around the city but change the way we visualise London forever.

Caroline Roope’s wonderfully researched book casts the Underground in a new light, placing the world’s most famous transit network and its even more famous map in its wider historical and cultural context, revealing the people not just behind the iconic map, but behind the Underground’s artistic and architectural heritage. From pioneers to visionaries, disruptors to dissenters – the Underground has had them all – as well as a constant stream of (often disgruntled) passengers. It is thanks to the legacy of a host of reformers that the Tube and the diagram that finally provided the key to understanding it, have endured as masterpieces of both engineering and design.

I write this review having only ever been on the London Underground once in my life, and yet I have always found it to be fascinating if not mesmerising transport system. When you don’t come from an underground transport system area, it always staggering the layout and construction of something so huge, yet you can’t really see most of it. This is a really well laid out and researched book by the author Caroline Roops who has combined history and detail with modern-day details that will engage the reader. The book even explains a number of disputes amongst officials of the underground system, who wanted things their way against other people's opinions. I loved all the different little stories throughout the book which helped give a story and character to the various parts of the underground. This is a fascinating book and very well worth the read by an author who has done a great job in writing it.

Transport Curiosities

Transport Curiosities 1850 - 1950 written by John Wade and published by Pen & Sword Books - £20 - Hardback - Pages 208

Over the years many weird and wonderful types of transport have come and gone, some of which succeeded against all odds, others that spectacularly failed, and some that never got beyond a designer’s drawing board. Railway engines driven by horses, for example. Or maybe the surprising number of cars, boats and trains driven by aeroplane propellers. In this book you will find cars that flew, cars that floated on water and boats that ran on roads; steam-powered aeroplanes, electric submarines, railways driven by pneumatic air, aircraft with flapping wings… and a whole lot more. If you are a person who would like to have flown in an airship or travelled in a train whose carriage sat on stilts above the sea with its tracks below the water, or dreamed of riding on a London to New York railway that took twelve days to travel the long way around the world, or maybe just fancied fixing your bicycle to a railway track, then this book is for you.

This book is like a collection of ideas from British eccentrics, some of the designs in this book could fit into four categories as they were just not practical, didn’t get the financial support, physically impossible and just bizarre. In a way, all the designs shown were fantastic in their own ways and some were just out there. I must admit some of the bizarre inventions were my favourites but just impossible to work or be mass-produced. I found this book fascinating and I think the beautiful drawings and designs really make the book as it made every design seem cool but the book has that cool 50’s feel to it. As I said at the beginning this book looks like a collection of eccentric designs produced in the shed of a mad engineer. I really enjoyed this book and would happily recommend it for a good read.