30th anniversary of the end of BR steam

[Bill Jamieson]

No, it's not a typo, 4th November was the last day of the 1988 season on the Vale of Rheidol and in my book qualifies as the real end of BR steam (OK there were a couple of specials run after 4/11/88, but it was the last day of normal operation under BR).

 

To mark this anniversary I will be self publishing a large format album of black and white photographs covering the period 1977-88. As I'm experiencing the same sort of problems with getting satisfatory proofs as Colin Gifford and the MNA with their books marking the end of main-line steam, I hesitate to give a definite date for publication, but I'm hopeful that it will be well before the end of the year. Attached are the front and back covers.

 

Bill

 

Edited November 4, 2018 by Bill Jamieson

[Bill Jamieson]

Update - I was down at Bayliss Print in Shireoaks (near Worksop) Monday and Tuesday last week to supervise the printing, and the 500 sets of pages are now over in Stockport for binding. I expect to get a pallet of books delivered to my house at the end of next week.

 

If anyone is interested please contact me at sparrowcastle@btinternet.com and I will email particulars of content, cost etc and a few sample pages.

 

Bill

[Bill Jamieson]

Latest update - anyone who has been following the 'Media > Books > Transition Colin T Gifford' thread on this site will see that I have just had the books delivered but I am not happy with them due to a very obvious (and to my eye unpleasant) purplish-brown colour cast under warm (2700K) domestic lighting. The root cause is the four colour printing process used (CMYK) which delivers reasonably neutral results under daylight balanced lighting but is subject to a phenomenon often referred to as 'metamerism' but more correctly, I believe, as 'metameric failure'. I am currently investigating a reprint with my printer using a different process, and am not actively promoting the book in its current form. That said if anyone is still interested by all means get in touch by email or phone -  sparrowcastle@btinternet.com / 01578 730262.

 

Bill

[Bill Jamieson]

I'm pleased to say that the second print run in duotone has been completed and delivered to me - in fact I've had the books since the end of March but, having been away on holiday for a few weeks, have only just cleared giving it a plug on RMWeb with Andy Y.

    Pasted in below is the flyer which gives full details, but I would just point out that as well as photographs of the VoR, ten pages are devoted to a selection of steam-worked NG lines on the European mainland. These are integral to the introduction - my interest in the VoR was sparked by seeing working steam NG in Austria and the DDR, not the other way round. These will be to some peoples' taste but not to others.

   It received a very enthusiastic review from Andrew Charman in the May edition of Narrow Gauge World and if I say so myself, the print quality is comparable with what David Postle has achieved in the Colin Gifford Transition book. 

Bill

 

                     BEYOND  ’68 The Last Years of BR Steam on the Vale of Rheidol Line

 

    During the summer of 2018 a number of events were held to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of standard-gauge steam operation on British Railways. There was naturally extensive coverage of the anniversary in those railway periodicals aimed at the nostalgia market, and a number of  books were published or announced, including notable offerings from Colin Gifford, Stephen Leyland and the Master Neverers Association, the last of these a four-volume magnum opus.

    Continued steam operation of the 1’ 11.5” Vale of Rheidol line beyond August 1968 did warrant a mention in the magazine coverage, but it is probably not widely appreciated that another significant anniversary fell in 2018, both for the line and BR, which actually ran its very last timetabled steam-worked train using one of its own locomotives some thirty years earlier on 4 November 1988, at the close of that year’s Vale of Rheidol operating season. The sale of the line to the Brecon Mountain Railway was concluded a few months later and  normal service was resumed in May 1989, but the line was now firmly in the heritage sector, rather than a part of the national network.

    This album of photographs has been produced to mark a 30th anniversary which otherwise seems to have passed by unremarked, and to redress the photographic neglect (based on a perceived dearth of published photos from the 1970s and 1980s) of a minor but interesting chapter in British railway history. With less than 12 miles of line to cover, this is naturally a somewhat slimmer volume than any of those brought out to mark the end of standard-gauge steam, but hopefully the quality of reproduction and the generous size at which the photographs are used will compensate to some degree for the lower page count.

    For those who, like the author, are interested in narrow-gauge steam on mainland Europe, ten pages are devoted to the photographic results of his forays across the English Channel in search of ‘real’ working steam between 1975 and 2015, and the introductory text relates how his first visits to Austria and East Germany led to a fascinatiom with the Vale of Rheidol line.

    104 pages 292mm x 273mm with 85 monochrome photographs (virtually all one to a page) duotone printed on 170 gsm satin paper.

    Obtainable direct from the author at ‘Sparrow Castle’, 91 Galashiels Road, Stow, Scottish Borders, TD1 2RQ, retail price £27.50 but offered to RMWeb readers at £26 including p&p for orders placed by the end of June 2019. Payment by cheque or BACS (bank details supplied on request).              

T 01578 730262          

E sparrowcastle@btinternet.com

 

Edited May 27, 2019 by Bill Jamieson