Diesels in the Western Region

AUTHOR: George Woods

PUBLISHER: Amberley Publishing

ISBN: 978-1-39810-195-1

PRICE: £15.99

WEBSITE: www.amberley-books.com

ONE OF the recent releases from Amberley Publishing is this photographic record of diesel traction around the Western Region of British Railway

The author has done an excellent job in selecting a wide range of images covering the period from the mid-1960s through to the present day, with plenty of nostalgic scenes captured. He is also clearly a talented photographer.

The book takes you on a photographic journey through the decades, depicting locomotives from the diesel hydraulic classes that emerged from the 1955 Modernisation Plan, through to the IETS that now rule high speed services in the region. There are also a few photos of the former Western Region locomotives that have survived into preservation.

As with all of Amberley Publishing’s photo books, Diesels in the Western Region is printed in full colour and consists of 96 pages in softback format. Photo reproduction is generally very good, especially with some of the images being captured in an era when colour photography was something of a luxury.

An area where I have been critical before is the reproduction of the cover image and this book appears to have the same problem, whereby the cover is printed darker than it should be. Thankfully, this issue appears to only affect the cover photo and does not affect the inside.

(AMC)