chrisf Posted February 7, 2016 Share Posted February 7, 2016 I found the latest compilation by David Larkin on sale at Stafford. The cover price is £15 but Book Law were knocking it out for £12.50. It is published by Kestrel. The sub-title is "Self propelled parcels vans, TPOs and car-carrying vehicles for Motorail services" but there is more in it than that. The collection of black and white images also embraces dmus with tail traffic - now that would be a fascinating boom in itself! -, Pooley weighing machine vans, exhibition coaches, gas carriers, calf boxes, stores vans and a second helping of milk tanks. Most of the captions are informative but some profess not to know the date or location. This failing is doubtless because the owner of the photo does not know either. I did spot a few oddities. One is that the photo on the cover showing the ex-GWR parcels car W17W is said to possibly depict it in multi-unit green. Not so: it ended its days in crimson. The pictures on page 9 of this and its angular sister W34W are vague as to their use in later life. Let me assist. 34 remained in use working off Southall until replaced by new Gloucester-built cars in 1960. 17 was displaced from London because it had hub brakes which did not keep wheel treads clean enough to work track circuits! It moved to Oxford in 1953 and to Leamington Spa in 1954, where it stayed until replaced, first by de-seated W13W and W14W and then by new Gloucester-built cars. It only took me half an hour to look that up. Perhaps if Mr Larkin had been given more time to prepare the book he could have done likewise. Another oddity is on page 61, where the caption asserts that the two Enparts pictured were converted from Mk 1 BCKs. They look like BSOs to me. These points apart, the book is a worthwhile addition to the library. Chris Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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