BR steam in Scotland

[jonathan3005]

BR Steam in Scotland

 

Price:£25

Publisher: Clyard Novella Limited

Author:George C. O'Hara

 

 

This A4 size book is packed full of British steam goodness (with the occasional diesel thrown in)

and gives a very well written but brief description of each image for the light read before bed its

got enough to spark interest.This review will discuss the good points and bad points of this book

and try to come to a conclusion as to if this is a good book and if ultimately it is worth spending

money on purchasing it.

 

 

I am first going to start with my main problems with this book my first is that it tends to limit the detail given and waffle on other scenes a good example of this is were there is a large station or junction pictured with a large array of engines and or interesting features on display but the book only gives an inch or two to sum up the contents and will then give the same for a very simple halt or very bland image a good example is shown when it describes a scene at Ballachulish (a small two track station) a scene with a McIntosh 2P running round its train is depicted with a porter moving items up to the station building however it describes the porters roll more than the train or the landscape surrounding it however it includes details about the small station in the description of the previous picture also of this station but from the other direction this however also lacks a simple description of the location and still waffles more about irrelevant details instead of painting a picture of the location. An example of when it scrimps on details on larger stations is a view of Edinburgh Waverley were it shows a view of the station but lacks info on the loco stabling in the siding at the the mouth of the station or any mention of the station its self other than its name however i personally feel i would have liked to have seen less photos if the descriptions for the images could have been bulked out.  Another problem with this book is often the larger images are less interesting than some of the smaller ones and on ocation the larger ones are of a lesser quality than some of the smaller ones however this is normally due to some interesting feature about the line surrounding the area depicted and this warrants a larger description however a larger image dos not require the image it relates to being bigger.

 

 

I am now going to talk about some of the brilliant features of this book and why i personally enjoy this book, The first point i must congratulate this book on is its aesthetic and quality i personally like the simple light blue cover with two photos showing the wide variety of lines that existed at top a simple halt with a standard class waiting to depart set against the backdrop of hills and clouds.The lower the busy covered platforms of Edinburgh princess street and  this aesthetic also appears on the back with four more photos of locos passing through stunning landscapes.The next point awaits you on the first and last pages of this book with a full map of the Scotland network with an aged effect thrown in and what would a map of Scotland be without (tea stains) 101 lochs plotted out. The good point continue inside the book the first thing as a reader is that they have used good quality paper meaning that every page turns properly and throughout my time reading i have had only one page stick and i would say that on that ocation it was probably my fault.

 

 

The main event in a picture book is ..... you guessed it, Its the pictures themselves and there are 740 pictures spanned over 320 odd pages All the pictures are of high quality and some may look sparse but nine times out of ten there is a interesting feature to be found other than the loco depicted however i would appreciate a clue as to this instead of playing wheres wally to figure out the deeper meaning however on the most part the hidden details are worth searching for.   I found the sectioning in this book very well done in total there are 9 sections and located at the back is index talking through the numbers and places and opening the book to a random page and looking through what that section has to offer is a delight due to the length of this book turning to a random page always tends to turn up a fresh image.Another thing this book has done well is in which photos they have chose to use as every other photo either includes an interesting shot of the area it is captured in or interesting angle of the loco contained in the shot.Another point is that where an image has a good backdrop they have not cropped the image but shrunk the image this has lead to the images reflecting the area and not just the loco a problem with many other railway books suffer with.My favorite part of this book lied in the fifth section when you see the large array of locos that hauled goods trains over this network and unlike most books in this section it has described each trains start and end point and its contents were possible it carry's this theme throughout this book.

 

 

In conclusion:

 

In my time with this book i have forgiven the gripes and believe the book is a great book for any steam enthusiast but it is not a book for on the go due to its weight and size, I will add that the price of £25 is high however i feel it justified the price with the shear length and quality of the images used. Personally i like the book however overall i think there are things that can be improved upon however these gripes should not stop you from enjoying a great profile of the Scottish network and the end of the steam era on Scottish rails,on the hole a great book full of interesting scene from a decade long since gone by.

 

Thank you for reading and i hope you enjoyed my review of this book.

 

Kind regard's Jonathan D

 

 

 

 

 

[Dava]

Good review Jonathan.

 

Book Law have this book for £20, despite the subject matter I've been able to resist buying it, maybe more colour would have made a difference.

 

Dava

[jonathan3005]

Hi all

 

I have had a message informing me of Mr O' Hara's death last year, I would like to add my condolences, I have been told to look out for more of his work and i will aim to do so in the coming months,

 

All the best  

Jonathan D