Shunter Hunter

Published by Inter City Railway Society www.intercityrailwaysociety.org

150mm x 210 mm size, 96 pages, colour, softback. £14.00

SUB-TITLED ‘Class 08 Locos in the Pre-Privatisation Era’ this book does exactly what it says on the tin (or, in this case, cover). It is English Electric 0-6-0 action from cover to cover, with the colour mainly BR blue.

Although a handful of the images come from regular photographic contributor to Rail Express Colin, the majority were taken by Doug, rendering the individual picture credits slightly redundant.

This minor quibble aside, many of the originally nearly 1000strong class are illustrated, in all kinds of locations, some now consigned to history. The book follows a format of three images per two-page spread, allowing quarter of a page for three captions.

It is worth noting that most of the images, which are presented in no discernible order, were taken in the 1980s, so those interested in shots from the three decades prior to that will need to look elsewhere.

The captions are part image descriptions and part data file, including date of introduction for the loco/s featured in each image, plus withdrawal and disposal dates, where relevant.

As this information is available elsewhere, we wonder whether the book might have benefited from larger image sizes and less text, but for shunter lovers this will be a happy read.

A final observation: many pictures show the shunters on shed, either idle or awaiting their next duty, with comparatively few action shots of the locos actually shunting!