Lion: The Story of the Real Titfield Thunderbolt

By Anthony Dawson (softback, Amberley Publishing, 96pp, £15.99, ISBN 978 1 4456 8505 2).

THIS year marks the 70th anniversary of the Talyllyn Railway becoming the first volunteer-run heritage line. In those longdistant days before anyone even dreamed of the internet, much of the essence of what Tom Rolt and the Talyllyn revivalists achieved was broadcast far and wide on the big screen in the 1953 Ealing comedy The Titfield Thunderbolt, a move that undoubtedly introduced the concept of operational railway preservation to the general public big-time. Lion, the sole surviving locomotive built for the Liverpool & Manchester

Railway – the world's first inter-city line – was one of the stars of the film but was already an old hand in the drama industry, having made its movie debut in the 1937 film Victoria The Great, starring Anna Neagle.

This fascinating and extensively researched volume recounts the history of Lion, from its 19 years of main line operation through to its many rebuilds, which have probably left us with nothing left of the original dating back to 1838.

DETAILED AND ABSORBING HISTORY