New Black Country book is a steamy sensation

THE railway lines of the Black Country were of great commercial importance to the fortunes of the Great Western Railway and its successor, the Western Region of British Railways. However, they received little attention from both photographers of the railway scene and contemporary railway publishers alike.

Perhaps it was understandable that photographers, expecially in the postwar austerity years, chose to eschew the grimy industrial landscape of the Black Country and save their expensive film stock for more idyllic scenery elsewhere.

A new book sets out to redress that previous lack of attention, by presenting more than 200 photographs, many hitherto unpublished, featuring 30 stations, principally by locally based enthusiasts, accompanied by informative captions.

The book is by Paul Dorney, who was born in Dudley and educated in Wolverhampton. After university, where he studied law, he worked for many years in Wednesbury and West Bromwich until being made redundant. Finding employment with Railtrack, later Network Rail, he worked until retirement as a signalman in a mechanical box in the Worcester area.

Throughout the period from nationalisation to the ultimate demise of steam, the book follows the respective former Great Western routes through the region in a logical manner, depicting the wide variety of the locomotive power employed to haul the diverse traffic generated by the local industry, and the sidings and yards that served it. Coverage is also given to local locomotive running sheds and maintenance facilities.

Black Country Steam, Western Region Operations, 1948–1967 by Paul

Dorney is published by Pen & Sword Transport at £25 for the 144-page hardback. Log on to www.pen-and-sword. co.uk for more details.