The Cambridge to King’s Lynn Line 30 Years of Electrification

AUTHOR: Mike Beckett

PUBLISHER: Amberley Publishing

ISBN: 978-1-39811-558-3

PRICE: £15.99

WEBSITE: www.amberley-books.com

UPON FIRST glance of this release from Amberley, I thought this book would solely detail the electrification and subsequent traffic on the Cambridge to

King’s Lynn line due to the subheadline declaring ‘30 Years of Electrification’. However, this photo album produced by Mike Beckett is more of a book of two halves.

The first section looks at the route as it was from the mid-1980s, with a variety of diesel locomotivehauled trains and diesel multiple units included, before moving on to the electrification of the line and the adoption of electric locomotives and electric multiple units, covering the period through to the present day.

The author clearly knows the route well and a detailed introduction is provided to give the reader some background information about the line and its history. The photo captions provided have also been well-written and give plenty of additional information and background.

One thing I noticed was the change in quality of the pictures used in the book. While the photos from recent years are of a generally excellent quality, many of the older photographs have a yellowish cast over them, which I suspect could be photo prints that have been scanned.

The book is produced to the Amberley photo album standard, with most of the 96 pages containing two pictures and accompanying captions, and it is priced £15.99, which is the normal price charged by the publisher, and this does represent good value for money.

As a historical record of the route, this is a good, illustrated guide, despite the issue I have mentioned above, and it should be of interest to anyone who has an interest in the Cambridge to King’s Lynn line.

AMC