South Wales Railways Gallery

[Captain Kernow]

I came across this book by accident, when looking through the Pen & Sword website for... books on Welsh railways! It was actually published a year ago, in October 2022.

 

https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/South-Wales-Railways-Gallery-Hardback/p/22080

 

It's by my old boss Stuart Davies, who also co-authored a couple of Pen & Sword books on the Tondu Valleys, together with John Hodge (who has written numerous other books on specific lines of railway in and near Wales).

 

I immediately ordered it and was not disappointed. I would certainly not dismiss it as 'just another photo album'. There are many photos that I hadn't seen before (the description of the book does mention that some photos haven't been published before), with a mix of (predominantly) black & white, together with some colour views.

 

It literally does what the title suggests and gives a wonderful spread of photos of the Valleys and railways west thereof, from the pre-Grouping era up to British Railways. Given that Stuart Davies was a career railwayman, the captions are well written and informative as well.

 

The format is the same as that of the existing books on various Welsh Valley railway routes and this album will sit very well with them on the bookshelf.

 

Thoroughly recommended.

 

 

[Ian Hargrave]

On 13/10/2023 at 19:47, Captain Kernow said:

I came across this book by accident, when looking through the Pen & Sword website for... books on Welsh railways! It was actually published a year ago, in October 2022.

 

https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/South-Wales-Railways-Gallery-Hardback/p/22080

 

It's by my old boss Stuart Davies, who also co-authored a couple of Pen & Sword books on the Tondu Valleys, together with John Hodge (who has written numerous other books on specific lines of railway in and near Wales).

 

I immediately ordered it and was not disappointed. I would certainly not dismiss it as 'just another photo album'. There are many photos that I hadn't seen before (the description of the book does mention that some photos haven't been published before), with a mix of (predominantly) black & white, together with some colour views.

 

It literally does what the title suggests and gives a wonderful spread of photos of the Valleys and railways west thereof, from the pre-Grouping era up to British Railways. Given that Stuart Davies was a career railwayman, the captions are well written and informative as well.

 

The format is the same as that of the existing books on various Welsh Valley railway routes and this album will sit very well with them on the bookshelf.

 

Thoroughly recommended.

 

 

This Valley’s boy wholeheartedly endorses your recommendation. Wonderfully evocative of my childhood and youth.

[The Stationmaster]

Santa ordered a copy for me on Sunday and it arrived today - so hopefully I shall be unpacking it next Monday for a good long study of the contents.   There will be a volume, or two, of the same publisher\s 3 volume series on the B&M arriving on the same day from one of Santa's assistants.

[Captain Kernow]

On 20/12/2023 at 16:40, The Stationmaster said:

There will be a volume, or two, of the same publisher\s 3 volume series on the B&M arriving on the same day from one of Santa's assistants.

And they're a very interesting read as well!

 

I'm looking forward to the Vale of Neath book, due out next year, according to their website. 

 

[The Stationmaster]

23 hours ago, Captain Kernow said:

And they're a very interesting read as well!

 

I'm looking forward to the Vale of Neath book, due out next year, according to their website. 

 

Presumably John hodge' requiem unless he left other books in the works with them after his death earlier this yeat.  61 years plus a few months since I travelled over the eastern end of it from Quakers Yard (HL) to Pontypool Road and back - changing from LL to HL and vice versa at Quakers Yard. I travelled over one or two remaing very short sections which formed parts of valley routes in the early '70s but not much left even then of what had been there only a decade earlier.    

 

A fascinating route full of interest so the book should be good.

[Ian Hargrave]

Thanks for news of this. High Level Boy. 

 

[Captain Kernow]

I didn't know that John Hodge had died.

 

May he Rest in Peace.

 

I see that the Vale of Neath book is set to be published on 28th February 2024.

 

It's been a most interesting and informative series  of books. 

 

Edited December 23, 2023 by Captain Kernow

[Strathwood]

I am afraid we are all mortal and as the phrase goes "of a certain age".

 

Agreed RIP as his four volumes on South Wales with OPC are a superb record.

 

Kevin

[Welchester]

7 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

Presumably John hodge' requiem unless he left other books in the works with them after his death earlier this yeat.  61 years plus a few months since I travelled over the eastern end of it from Quakers Yard (HL) to Pontypool Road and back - changing from LL to HL and vice versa at Quakers Yard. I travelled over one or two remaing very short sections which formed parts of valley routes in the early '70s but not much left even then of what had been there only a decade earlier.    

 

A fascinating route full of interest so the book should be good.

 

Sorry to hear this. There were plans for a volume on the Eastern Valley, but how far advanced I have no idea,

[The Stationmaster]

16 hours ago, Welchester said:

 

Sorry to hear this. There were plans for a volume on the Eastern Valley, but how far advanced I have no idea,

He is major loss, not only for his family of course, but for all of us with an interest in South Wales and the excellent and informative volumes he has produced over the years.  

 

I understand from a friend who had visited him on several occasions that he had a considerable archive of both information and photos/. I hope it has (or will) finish up where it can not only be appreciated but hopefully used for further work in some form or other.

[Captain Kernow]

3 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

He is major loss, not only for his family of course, but for all of us with an interest in South Wales and the excellent and informative volumes he has produced over the years.  

 

I understand from a friend who had visited him on several occasions that he had a considerable archive of both information and photos/. I hope it has (or will) finish up where it can not only be appreciated but hopefully used for further work in some form or other.

It occurred to me yesterday that perhaps another author on the books at Pen & Sword, knowledgeable about the railways of South Wales might be able to do that?...

 

[The Stationmaster]

On 24/12/2023 at 16:08, Captain Kernow said:

It occurred to me yesterday that perhaps another author on the books at Pen & Sword, knowledgeable about the railways of South Wales might be able to do that?...

 

Always possible I suppose.  Our old make Stuart might be a possibility for that and another chap worked with John Hodge on the B&M books although he would seem to be a B&M expert more than anything else.

 

Incidentally Santa packed my books in the wrong order so I got the Tondu book (Volume 1) for Christmas and the Gallery will come along shortly to mark my completion of another orbit around the sun.   The B&M volumes - two so far - are fascinating and at last one of them answers my questions about what went on at Pantywaun Jcn (closed in 1936) while in a present to myself I have obtained some mid 1950s official information about the goings on at West London.

 

 

[The Stationmaster]

Well I've got to see it at last.  Interesting mix although quite a number of the photos have appeared in print previously which is a little disappointing and some of the print quality - most likely due to the original photos - is  not very good.

 

I've not yet had the chance to read everything in detail but I did notice that one of the several photos previously published  in 'South Wales Railways At the Grouping'. (Brian Miller, published by Brown & Sons of Cowbridge in 1986) has a caption which doesn't even mention that fact that the view includes one of the rarest types of GWR signal of which only two were definitely known to exist although there is some evidence for a third one.

 

But there are lenty of phptps that i haven't seen before (e.g the two15XX on shed at Pill) and the range of coverage across South Wales is impressive is pretty good with photos drawn from a variety of sources.  Definitely worth the money o if your interest lies in that part of the world. 

[Captain Kernow]

I was immediately smitten once I'd seen the photos of Duffryn Yard (Doctor's Crossing) and Chapel of Ease Crossing...

 

[The Stationmaster]

6 hours ago, Captain Kernow said:

I was immediately smitten once I'd seen the photos of Duffryn Yard (Doctor's Crossing) and Chapel of Ease Crossing...

 

They are indeed rather good.  Alas when I went exploring that area in the early (when i was based at margam for training purposes) there was little or nothing - mainly the latter - to be found.  Much the same could be said of the rstwhile Rhymney Bridge whiich I also voy ted during my time working in south wales and that was even worst in any hints of its past although the name had been transferred to a 'bus stop.

 

Incidentally the three B&M volumes are really good.  Again, some  photo duplications, some of which are acknowledged as having been previously published in John Hodge's superb 'Six Railways to Merthyr' album, published by the WRRC) but a really good set of books.  Also they have in effect solved for me - although it isn't illustrated - the peculiar survival until the 1970s of a somersault signal near McLaren colliery on what was by then NCB property.