THE LEGENDARY LYNTON & BARNSTAPLE RAILWAY:

The Human Story

BY TONY NICHOLSON

• LYNTON & BARNSTAPLE RAILWAY TRUST

Different take on line’s history. Some images previously seen.

PRICE: £9.95 (£3 p&p) RATING:

This is not another account of how the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway was built and operated, nor is it a look at the line’s distinctive locomotives and rolling stock.

This follows a different tack, looking at the human side of the L&B – the people who built the railway, who worked on it, and the people and communities it served. Don’t be mistaken, there is still plenty of history here to delight the L&B aficionado, and the personal anecdotes from those for whom the line was both a means of transport and a way of life help bring that history alive.

In all, this is a fascinating take on a subject seldom covered by railway historians, let alone those studying the L&B, and this is a useful and insightful addition.

One very minor mark against it is that a fair few of the photos have been seen before in recent publications on the L&B, but that is only to be expected for a line which existed when photography was still in its relative infancy. The rest, however, are as interesting as the text, and there are a great many that will be unfamiliar to even the most ardent L&B fan. (TB)