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By Martin Buck
Published by Freightmaster Publishing www.freightmasterpublishing.uk
Both: 192 pages, softback. £19.50 (Vol.1), £19.95 (Vol.2)
BACK after a break of five years is Freightmaster’s annual guide to our railways, but this time split into two volumes covering ‘passenger and freight’ and ‘loco profiles’. The books provide a round-up of railway highlights over the past year, along with supporting photographs and data.
They are great books to dip into, not necessarily in any order, with chapters in ‘passenger and freight’ covering operations, while ‘loco profiles’ concentrates on the operational classes.
Volume 1 includes chapters such as freight flows, drone photography, TPE ‘68’s, GWR HSTs and Class 37 workings. Volume 2 includes in-depth looks at GBRf liveries, DCR Class 60s, Scrappers, ‘Pacers’, the Midland Pullman and Network Rail snowploughs. There are some great photos to back up the texts, which together add up to a useful snapshot of the year for future reference.
PB
Second revised edition
Published by FastPrint www.amazon.co.uk
132mm x 197mm size, 252 pages, colour, paperback. Approx. £13.00
MORE than a decade after its original publication, this book remains as relevant as it was when first published in 2010 (the second revised edition was published in 2011). This revealing analytical text, written by a retired author, explores the incidents and experiences in a career that began in the 1970s as a guard and then a train operator, progressing to a midmanagement level on London Underground (LUL).
The reader will gain an insight into the intriguing challenges of managing staff or operational incidents during the social changes of the 1980s/1990s/2000s. The book also explores the experiences of the author when working with both outstanding and appalling senior managers, along with the strengths and weaknesses of LUL railway operations and its procedures. The author writes under the pseudonym of Andrew Melville, the initials carefully chosen to represent the historical job title of Area Manager – of note, this job title has been resurrected again, however the role differs.
Whilst the stories and narrative are historical,
the reader will be able to appreciate the frustrations of LU staff today as they, once again, grapple with politicization and a climate of stretched financial budgets and cutbacks (see LU World p36).
The book begins long before, leading up to, during and after the collapse of the Public Private Partnership. The author reveals cyclical ‘solutions' to restructure or invest in the network that were imposed upon LU, only to fail. At worst, these solutions were at a huge financial and operational cost to the taxpayer. The front cover even features an underexposed photograph of a graffitied and tired unrefurbished C Stock train at Earl's Court station, representing the undervalued service that all too many still take for granted. In the author's own words: “only the devotion of the good staff kept it afloat, often despite management!” This text will be relevant for anyone intending to learn firsthand about the subtleties, real-life frustrations, and reality of operating a railway in a complex climate of political interference. Essential reading!
CW