Industrial Railway Reference Sources

[Sir Hadyn]

As one who does a lot of industrial modelling in my head, just thought I'd share my favourite points of inspiration.

 

Firstly, I've been a member of the Industrial Railway Society for many years, and excellent journal and many really good publications from the regional handbooks to Industrial Wagons - an Introduction.

 

Also the excellent Irwell Press series "Industrial Railways in Colour" which started off as a general one off album but now has five other regional titles with more planned - covering both steam and diesel. Roger Siviter's "Industrial Steam in Action" gives some excellent colour images. Even some of the earlier Colin Garratt albums such as "Symphony in Steam" has some good UK industrial steam from the 60s and 70s. Ian Allan did two "Industrial Steam Album"s back in the 70s and there have been many more.

 

Reference wise, far too many, but the Wemyss Private Railway from Oakwood and the IRS Durham Series and the IRS Brewery Railways of Burton on Trent stand out. Also the IRS "Exisiting Locomotives" handbook which is released every 2 years or so is great for finding out what's were and with whom.

 

On the internet, there are so many sites, it would be invidious to single out one or two, whilst on DVD or video, my favourites have to be Ivo Peters stuff, plus the "Industry of Steam" series and one which tends to get overlooked on cheapy DVD called "Working Steam" or a derivation of that title - it's originally an Online Video production on at least 16mm film stock and includes Mountain Ash, Ford, Swanscombe, LT panniers and a lot more.

 

Diesel wise, there's the IRS "BR Diesels in Industry" set of books and a Bradford Barton published Adrian Booth album of Industrial diesel shunters plus some similar paperbacks, and studies of individual makers and types, such as the Moseley Railway Trust book on Ruston 48 & 88DS classes.

 

"Modelling Aspects of the Coal Industry" and its companion volume also get a place on the bookshelves.

 

As I say, there are many more, but this is a handful thought up whilst sitting with the kids with their stuff on telly...

[Lambton58]

I think most people interested in things industrial will have already come across these websites, but here are some really good resources:

The IRS have very generously put copies of some their old (1960s-70S) back numbers on their website at http://www.irsociety...back_issues.htm

 

These are few photo archives I like:

Plumb loco http://geoff-plumb.f...et/c853638.html

53A Models Photo stream on Flickr

Lambton Locomotive Trust http://www.lambtonlo...vestrust.co.uk/

Durham Mining Museum - Railway gallery http://www.dmm-galle...ilway/index.htm

 

Ralph

Lambton58

[EddieB]

Don't forget that there's also the Industrial Locomotive Society, with its journal The Industrial Locomotive. There are some resources on the website ( http://www.industrial-loco.org.uk/ ) including a locomotive names index.

 

Another book worth looking out for is Frank Jones From Main Line to Industry, which lists locomotives sold into industrial service.

 

Histories of particular lines and systems can crop up from various sources. Some appear in local publications, others as Oakwood Press or Middleton Press titles, others the subject of Industrial Railway Record "specials" (some becoming hard to find = expensive).

 

There are also some detailed and comprehensive works. (I find it amazing that Model Rail could recently have described a layout project based on an East Midlands ironstone quarry without making reference to the collected works of Eric Tonks.)

 

Another source of information is through locomotive builders' histories and works lists. The Stephenson Locomotive Society Library has a collection of British and foreign works lists that can be borrowed by its members, whilst the library at the NRM has many original documents for inspection.