OAKWOOD PRESS & VIDEO LIBRARY

Introducing the latest new books from Oakwood Press

The THE SOUTH STAFFORDSHIRE RAILWAY Volume One: Dudley-Walsall-Lichfield-Burton (including the Black Country Branches) by  Bob Yate           £19.95 At the time of the inception of the South Staffordshire Railway (SSR), rail traffic across Birmingham was seriously impeded by the restrictive nature of the route arrangements around Curzon Street and Lawley Street stations. This new railway was intended as a through route for traffic to and from Southern England and South Wales to Northern England, bypassing this bottleneck.  .... more

 

The Essential Guide to Welsh Heritage and Tourist Railways by  Mervyn Jones           £16.95 This the fifth Oakwood Press publication by the author on European railways and fourth in the Essential Guide series. This guide lists a total of 62 locations throughout Wales (including five on the borders in England) where heritage and tourist railways and related activities can be found. But also included are interesting facts about places and events close to where trains pass..... more

 

SWANAGE  125 years of Railways by  B. L. Jackson           £16.95 The opening of the railway in May 1885 transformed Swanage into a respectable seaside resort with through coaches from Waterloo, it also saw the seaborne trade in Purbeck stone transferred to rail as was a large quantity of the clay traffic. British Railways, after much resistance from the local community, closed the branch to passenger traffic in 1972.    .... more

 

SIR SYDNEY CAMM - From Biplanes & 'Hurricanes' to 'Harriers' by  J E Chacksfield             £10.95 Sydney Camm’s greatest achievement was the creation of the Hawker ‘Hurricane’ fighter, which during the Battle of Britain shot down more enemy planes than the combined scores of all other means, whether air-, sea- or land-based. Camm had a patron, Sopwith, who realized his potential, however, he is recorded as saying: ‘He was a genius - but quite impossible’.     .... more

 

RETURN FROM DUNKIRK - Railways to the Rescue - Operation Dynamo (1940)            by  Peter Tatlow            £13.95 There can be no denying that the Battle of Flanders was a significant defeat for the Allies, but it could have been a great deal worse. For every seven soldiers who escaped through Dunkirk, one man was left behind as a prisoner of war. The success of Operation Dynamo was that  a quarter of a million experienced soldiers returned to England.      .... more

 

RICHARD MAUNSELL, AN ENGINEERING BIOGRAPHY   by  J E Chacksfield             £11.95 IT’S BACK – First published in 1998, this long out of print title has been reprinted (with a few revisions) by popular demand.  As a locomotive engineer he was a man of very definite opinions as affecting locomotive design, and he clearly left his mark on the locomotive stock of the Southern Railway. Here, then, is how Richard Maunsell rose to the top of his chosen profession.       .... more

 

MONTGOMERY'S BUSES -  An Empire of Independents   by Brian Poole                £15.95 Research often starts with a concept for a single essay and this is the case with this work. Brian Poole started by interviewing Bill Cross who was a young fitter when Mid-Wales Motorways was created in 1937. He quickly realised that there was a very big story hidden within the families of the Montgomeryshire bus and coach industry and many others have recounted their memories    .... more

 

YESTERDAYS PAPERS - Vol 3:   Life in England between the wars 1918 - 1938  From the pages of the Isle of Wight County Press by Alan Stroud             £13.95 Like the previous volumes in this series, this is a dip into the archive of the Isle of Wight County Press, this time for the years 1918 to 1934, to give a view of events and attitudes of those times from a contemporary perspective – an unvarnished version of the truth free from modern day judgements.   .... more

 

Neath Enginemen - Reminiscing Steam in South Wales compiled by  Bryan King               £13.95  The stories in this book have been collected by Bryan King from the close-knit community of West Glamorgan railwaymen. They tell of life on the railway in another era, primarily working from the two Neath engine sheds - Court Sart and N&B - but also included are stories from Swansea and Margam. The many incidents and accidents are recalled by those who were there.    .... more

 

The Wisbech & Upwell Tramway by  Peter Paye           £15.95 Passengers arriving by the Great Eastern Railway for the first time at the fenland port of Wisbech before the Great War, intending to travel to the canal side villages to the south-east of the town, could be forgiven for disbelieving the sight which greeted them. They would be cajoled to join the service standing in the back platform, which was unlike any other they had encountered   .... more