Off the Shelf

Compiled by John Glover (Transport Treasury Publishing, softback, 112pp, £14.50, ISBN 978-1-913251-15-4). Cheques payable to Transport Treasury, 16 Highworth Close, High Wycombe, HP13 7PJ.

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THERE are railway publications that delve into the memory bank, others which tap into a specific interest, and others that are painted with a broader brush. Just once in a while, however, along comes one which burrows into the core of one's trainspotting days, hits the heart of what those days were all about, and fits snugly into one's reminiscences.

Just such an example emerged this month from the burgeoning Transport Treasury publishing house, writes Geoff Courtney, and as soon as it arrived on my doormat I was transported onto the former GER line into Liverpool Street and was metaphorically running, or diving onto Tube trains, between its posher fellow London termini.

Coverage

The book covers the period 1953-73 and features in black and white the work of former civil servant Alan Jackson, who died in 2009 at the age of 86. An authority on the capital's modern transport and social history and a prolific photographer, Alan was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a former president of the Railway & Canal Historical Society.

The cover image of 4-SUB EMU No. 4304 at the former London Chatham & Dover Railway station of Shortlands in Bromley, south London, may not ignite a sense of nostalgia with some enthusiasts, but the contents surely will.

The 112 pages are divided into geographical areas, comprising Anglia, Eastern, Midland, Western and

Southern, followed by the London Underground, so finding one's pet location is easy.

Stations, more than trackside or locomotive depots, were obviously Alan's hunting grounds, and I was amused by the comment of John Glover, the book's compiler, in his introduction, that Alan had a “curious habit” of leaving his holdall on the railway platform and including it in his photographs. Rather like trying to trace artist Terence Cuneo's mouse in his works of art, I found myself looking for – and occasionally spotting – said holdall.

Not surprisingly, images of King's Cross feature prominently in the Eastern section, taken when it was a welcoming location for passengers – and trainspotters – before becoming the barrier-laden fortress it is today. I'm a bit miffed, however, by one of those photographs, of A3 No. 60082 Neil Gow of Newcastle's Heaton shed (52B) at platform 4 on August 27, 1958.

That was one of the few non-Scottish members of the class I failed to‘cop,'and on the day Alan took the photograph, I may well have been in the capital, notebook and Ian Allan ABC in hand. Maybe at that moment I was too busy chasing Princess Coronations at Euston or Kings at Paddington.

John Glover's detailed and informative captions add to the allure of the book, as does Alan's propensity to feature stations so prominently, for therein is one of the attractions of railway travel.

Passengers, architecture, signage – I enjoyed the‘Cartoon Cinema'direction sign in an image of the London Victoria concourse – and platform trolleys overloaded with the day's mail, are as integral to the book's theme as locomotives and rolling stock.

Underground

The section on London Underground is also a welcome inclusion, for this is often a subject bypassed in publications on the capital's transport system. One image is of London Transport's (LT) L91, an 0-6-0PT which started life in 1929 as GWR No. 5752 and was bought by LT in 1957.

In his caption to the photograph, which was taken at Neasden soon after the locomotive's arrival in London, John describes as “a little eccentric” the decision by LT to buy a fleet of ex-GWR pannier tanks, asking: “Why was a virtually all-electric railway wanting to buy superannuated steam locomotives in an era when the modernisation of motive power was a primary aim?”

Why indeed? A subject for debate on another day, but it did at least give us London trainspotters an opportunity to ‘cop' ex-BR steam engines that would doubtless have otherwise eluded us. LONDON SUBJECT, NATIONAL INTEREST