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Books for the period


Dave777

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This is my small collection of books for the period - I can recommend all of these for useful reference photos (as you can tell by my coloured tags in the first two).

 

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Blue Diesel Days by Paul Shannon. Excellent photos covering the whole of the UK mainland, full colour throughout with good captions.

 

 

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The newer book by the same author. Abandons the earlier 'region by region' approach of Blue Diesel Days (and its sister publication, Green Diesel Days) and instead breaks things down into Inter City, block freight, suburban lines, and so on. Bit short on parcels traffic, and there's the odd dodgy photo, but very minor quibbles - again full colour with decent captions.

 

 

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This is part of a series, each book based around a specific region. Photos are good, and again full colour, but the captions are 'Marmite' - love them or hate them. Not much info about what we're looking at and instead we get what was in the pop charts at the time, what the big movies were, or what was making the news. It tries to convey a sense of the feel or atmos of the period, but it doesn't work for me :(

 

Because the book is '1970s' based and not rail blue specific you also get a sprinkling of green diesel and steam excursions too. Full colour throughout. I keep meaning to get some of the others in this series.

 

 

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Another book that's an acquired taste. The photos are black and white with a small colour section in the middle, although the quality is excellent (pin sharp). The author doesn't concentrate on filling the frame with the subject, the photos are frequently 'trains in the landscape' and thus show a decent amount of the area either side of the railway boundary fence - useful for reference details. On the flipside, the lack of close up photos means it's not particularly useful for a good look at rolling stock (it's practically useless as a weathering guide, for example), there's a distinct lack of urban scenes, and - perhaps the worst problem - there's a massive bias towards passenger traffic. Captions are informative, but lend themselves to some curious details as the author took the photos while on a sort of tour of BR railways - hence we get details of 'the road leading off to the left went to our hotel where we had a splendid roast dinner that evening'. Er... okay, fair enough!

 

 

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Same author, same comments, this one covers the later 1970s period.

 

 

Yours?

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Here is a book that I saw recently and recommended read something a little different to the normal BR blue book.

As the title suggests, follows the author's travel around the UK in April 1981, with plenty of photos (although not all taken during this visit). Also, which is useful, is a list of locomotives spotted on each day

 

Blue Diesels and British Rail Sandwiches

A fully documented record of a 7-day journey around the British Railway network during April 1981.

 

author - Graham Teeson

ISBN 978-0-9565566-0-8

 

p.s. I bought my copy from Titfield Thunderbolt Books in Bath

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For me "Modelling the British Rail Era" by Ian Fleming, Steve Flint, Ken Gibbons and Jeff Taylor is a "must" for this group.

 

Thanks Andy, it always pleases Ken and myself that it's still well thought of ten years on and is finding a new audience through the Booklaw reprint. A lot of the content was of necessity precis'd, if anybody has any specific questions leading on from it I'll do my best to answer them.

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Guest stuartp

OPC did a whole series of A4 hardback albums in the 1980s - "Deisels on the Regions" - which mostly cover the 70s and early 80s (or at least my Eastern volume does). You'll have to search for them second hand though.

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I must add the whole series of the Bradford Barton series of books for Diesels and Electrics. The pictures might all be black & white but the photography is excellent, captures the countries railways in the 1970's just perfectly and are brilliant sources for the modeller with lots of detail photographs, even the atmospheric ones.......just a billion tons of inspiration

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The Bradford Barton series is excellent - I collected all the D&E ones a few years ago - an essential library!

 

But for me the recent Noodle Books series (www.noodlebooks.co.uk) on 'BR Blue' is a great resource for modelling '70s and '80s scenes, with colour images, and in Nos 3 and 4, views from around BR regions, all for less than eleven quid a piece (or even less on Amazon). The third book on "Freight in the 1980s" is packed full of useful (for me) grubby diesels and equally grubby rolling stock - though the fourth book, "Type 4 Diesel Power" is fantastic for us Peak fans (and others with a Type 4 leaning) with shots from the 1970s and 1980s - all BR Blue of course!

 

Thank goodness there were folks back then with decent cameras using decent film to record in such detail and clarity a world we have lost...

 

 

cheers,

 

Keith

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BR BLUE No 3 FREIGHT IN THE 1980s by John Dedman is an excellent book.

it's the area and time i was most active as a teenage trainspotter

wish i'd had a digital camera back then, i'd have more photos to work with now

the other book i have that is well out of date now is

Modellers's Guide to MODERN MOTIVE POWER by Peter Kazmierczak published by PSL.

all black and white but was quite good at the time.

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ok, not a book as such but the latest issue of Rail Express (January 2012) has a great feature by David Rapson on Clay Cross in 1977 - lots of pics and a great table of times and workings for July 16 that year. Definitely recommended.

 

cheers,

 

Keith

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Some more (which I think haven't been mentioned so far)

 

British Rail Northern Scene - A 1970's Railway Album (Andy Sparks)

British Rail Northern Scene - Coast to Coast (Andy Sparks)

Diesel Decade - The 1980's (Roger Siviter)

Diesel Memories (Roger Siviter)

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A couple that I have that are quite interesting are

 

Chris Heaps, BR Diary 1968-1977, Ian Allan (1988)

John Glover, BR Diary 1978-1985, Ian Allan (1985)

 

These volumes highlight notable events and developments on BR on a year-by-year basis, and together cover the Blue period from the enter of steam until sectorisation.

 

Another book I have is PSL Model Railway Guide 7: Modern Railways, Michael Andress (1982). Although dated, it is quite interesting from an historical perspective, as "modern" translates emphatically to "Corporate Blue". It also serves as a testament as to just how much choice in models we have today, compared to 30 years ago.

 

Old magazines from the '70s and early '80s have also proven quite useful for info on the period, and have been collected at minimal cost - less than 50p from secondhand bookshops or old-fashioned modelshops.

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I must add the whole series of the Bradford Barton series of books for Diesels and Electrics. The pictures might all be black & white but the photography is excellent, captures the countries railways in the 1970's just perfectly and are brilliant sources for the modeller with lots of detail photographs, even the atmospheric ones.......just a billion tons of inspiration

 

I agree B&B are excellent for those like me modeling the 70's..............just added this one to my collection :

 

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Cheers Phill

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Thanks Andy, it always pleases Ken and myself that it's still well thought of ten years on and is finding a new audience through the Booklaw reprint. A lot of the content was of necessity precis'd, if anybody has any specific questions leading on from it I'll do my best to answer them.

 

I also have a copy & very good it is too Ian :)

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hi folks,

 

I have just bought the newly-published photographic album by Roger Siviter - Classic Diesels in Colour - nice selection of pics and plenty of BR Blue scenes. I have posted up a review of it on Amazon with a few details. See http://www.amazon.co.uk/Classic-Diesels-Roger-Siviter/dp/0752461257/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1333483153&sr=1-1

 

cheers,

 

Keith

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hi folks,

 

Another recommendation - the new book in the BR Blue series by Noodle Books, "No. 5, Passenger and Parcels" by John Dedman.

 

I just bought it from Amazon for less than eight quid including postage, and well worth it in my view - the time-span is c.1973-1990, and the regional coverage is pretty good except for East Anglia which is somewhat absent. There is a good selection of WCML shots, handy for those who've just bought the Bachmann Class 85. In fact, for all BR Blue modellers this latest volume in the series is a winner, as are the previous ones too.

 

I particularly liked the shot of 40 074 on the ECML with four GUVs and a BG - just the kind of train I like to run on my layout. Another shot with interest for me is of 47 433 with HST 125 MkIIIs in tow, as I have been tempted to buy Hornby's models of these but waivered as they have the 125 branding. I am too impatient to wait for the promised new blue/grey MkIIDs...

 

Best of all for me though is the wintry view of Perth station, snow on the ground, with 37 043 with empty stock on February 22 1986. Why? Well, I was there that same day, having taken a trip up through the previous night from Bristol, via Glasgow. I was heading to Aviemore on a splendidly cheap 'under 25s' ticket offer over the half-term hols, and had to change trains at Perth. I had started the long journey northwards a few days earlier, having had a university interview at Southampton, then staying overnight in Bath with my sister to see OMD play at Bristol Colston Hall - great time.

 

1986 was somewhat at the end of my 'spotting days however, and in fact I took little interest in the haulage (shameful!) over that snowy weekend, though recently, thanks to Time Warp (http://www.timewarp.abelgratis.com/), I have since tracked down which locos worked the Bristol - Glasgow section of my trip, including the banker up Lickey. A couple of months later that spring I passed my driving test, and by the end of the summer was a teenage car-owner (Mini 850, K reg and beige), and from then on trains seemed so 'old hat' - of course, now I could kick myself for not showing more interest in the late 1980s, as so much changed then on the railways, as BR Blue 5 reminds us.

 

Anyhow, the stuff of memories, and a great little book with good captions and high quality colour images - well worth buying in my view.

 

cheers,

 

Keith

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Surprised no one has mentioned OPC !

I have the original 'diesels on shed series' (except Scottish + southern, haven't found those yet )

'Diesels nationwide' 1-4

'The power of the class 31/37s'

'the freight trains of BR'

 

Paul shannon is always good value with his more recent series on different freight segments.

 

And echoing elsewhere on 'Modelling the BR era' - most dog eared book I have

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Without wanting to blow my own trumpet, but Class 47:50 Years of Locomotive History has plenty of BR Blue era photos in it both colour and b/w, mostly with dates and locations. It also talks in some detail about the transition from green to blue, which some could find useful.

 

I have as well plenty of blue era BR livery documentation going into the sectorisation period if people are interested.

 

Regards

 

Simon

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Without wanting to blow my own trumpet, but Class 47:50 Years of Locomotive History has plenty of BR Blue era photos in it both colour and b/w, mostly with dates and locations. It also talks in some detail about the transition from green to blue, which some could find useful.

 

I have as well plenty of blue era BR livery documentation going into the sectorisation period if people are interested.

 

Regards

 

Simon

 

My copy arrived this morning, but I'm not allowed to look at it until Christmas.....

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My copy arrived this morning, but I'm not allowed to look at it until Christmas.....

 

I hope you enjoy it. I havent read my copy yet either, but there again I know how the story ends. It was Miss Scarlet in the drawing room with the ..........

 

Best wishes

 

Simon

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