Diesels in the Landscape

AUTHOR: Paul Anderson PUBLISHER: Irwell Press ISBN: 978-1-906919-90-0 PRICE: £9.99

WEB: www.irwellpress.com

THIS IS another in the Irwell Press series of A4 card-covered 80-page softback bookazines and this one concentrates on the backdrops as much as the trains depicted. There are typically two images per page supported by captions. However, the structure of the book’s images and the mish-mash of locations could have been better arranged, possibly grouped. And while it is fair to say a small handful of the images, sadly, don’t really make the grade, the vast majority do. The title is also perhaps mildly misleading as ‘landscape’ does make me think of scenic beauty, but the truth is many pictures are station shots with little or no ‘landscape’! That said, some of the station infrastructure is fantastic to recall.

Most of the images are from the 1960s and early 1970s, so while there is some BR blue, there’s also lots of green. There are also some tasty images of long-lost diesels such as Class 24s and 29s as well as Hydraulics. In addition, there are lots of great multiple unit pictures, including some on lost routes such as the Great Central and East Lincolnshire.

There are a few caption inaccuracies – calling Class 20s ‘Type 2s’ and Class 25s ‘BRCW’, for example, is pretty schoolboy-error stuff, while listing Dingwall as Lairg is, I guess, an easy slip to make on the keyboard. Overall, though, this is a good book and worth buying. (PD)