OAKWOOD PRESS & VIDEO LIBRARY

Introducing the latest new books from Oakwood Press

2013

THE INDUSTRIAL TRAMWAYS OF THE VALE OF LLANGOLLEN by J.R. Thomas & D. Southern                    £9.95 This book began some 10 years ago when J.R. Thomas was given a series of short articles about minor industrial tramways in and around Llangollen. Wanting to find out more about what seemed to be some old and obscure tramways, all in close proximity, he began to try and record the different lines and their workings. He researched local records and papers, and best of all, walked all of the remaining sites making notes as he went.     ....more

 

THE BRISTOL-RADSTOCK-FROME LINE by Colin G. Maggs                    £18.95 Initially coal was at the heart of it; now stone provides the only traffic. The apparently simple line from Frome to Radstock and Bristol had a fairly complex history: first just a broad gauge mineral branch from Frome to Radstock; then a standard gauge passenger/goods/mineral railway linking Radstock with Bristol. The whole line was closed to passengers in 1959, but the profitable goods and mineral traffic continued.    ....more

2012

DERBY DAYS - Memories of a Midland Railwayman by John Weston                    £15.95 Unlike many other railwaymen John Weston did not come from a family steeped in generations of railway service.  John’s working life started in 1934 as a gardener at a country house. He first joined the railway in 1937 with around 30 young men who had started work as engine cleaners at Derby No. 4 shed at the same time.  The young engine cleaners recruited in the Autumn of 1937 had a hard and slow journey in their path to becoming a driver.      ....more

 

THE ALDEBURGH BRANCH by Peter Paye                                £19.95 The Aldeburgh branch, unlike many of the lines inherited or built by the Great Eastern Railway, was not solely reliant on agricultural traffic for the major portion of its receipts. Much of the revenue came from the engineering works established at Leiston by Richard Garrett.  Aldeburgh was establishing itself as a fashionable resort for the gentry; it was thus essential for a railway to serve the town, and the extension from Leiston to Aldeburgh was completed in 1860.       ....more

 

THE KENDAL & WINDERMERE RAILWAY - Gateway to the Lakes by Robert Western                            £15.95  The proposal to build the first railway into the Lake District initially envisaged a line which would reach the shores of Lake Windermere and the outcome was a saga which, during the planning stage, was destined to become a very contentious one.  This may well have been the only railway over which a war of words involved the Poet Laureate and about which poetry was used significantly as a means of protestation!          ....more

 

NORTHERN NORTHUMBERLAND’S MINOR RAILWAYS  -  Volume Four: Limestone Industry Lines        by Roger Jermy              £11.95 This, the final volume, concentrates on the limestone industry. Almost exactly 200 years of local railway history are covered.  In researching this final book in the series the author has been handicapped by the early demise of some of the limeworks railways. Those at Beadnell, Seahouses and Ancroft, for example, had closed before the mid-point of the 19th century.     ....more

 

THE LYNTON & BARNSTAPLE RAILWAY by  L. T. Catchpole                 £10.95 So why is it that a small book about a little narrow gauge railway, now long closed, is still in print when so many other railway books have come and gone? For many it is their first introduction to the L&B written as it is, by someone who knew the line. This little book has surely contributed to keeping the memory of the railway alive long after its closure.    ....more

 

IRELAND'S NARROW GAUGE RAILWAYS - A Reference Handbook by Joe Begley & Steve Flanders                   £12.95 Like most students of the Irish narrow gauge, the authors came to know of these little railways only after they had gone. Thankfully there was a band of enthusiasts attracted to these lines who committed their memories to print and picture, saving a flavour for those unable to have witnessed the railways at first hand.  The factual information contained in this booklet has been gleaned over the years from diverse sources.         ....more

 

THE MELLIS AND EYE RAILWAY        by Peter Paye                                  £10.95    This railway was the shortest branch line with a regular passenger train service in East Anglia. It was conceived by local gentry, landowners and businessmen to improve transportation of their produce to London and the provincial markets, and the line preserved its independent status for 33 years before being absorbed into the Great Eastern Railway.            ....more

 

OAKWOOD PRESS: THE FIRST 80 YEARS 1931-2011 - A Collector's Guide by Terence Mullarkey                    £9.95 The main purpose of this book, as well as briefly telling the story of Oakwood Press, is to detail and illustrate fully all of the books and associated items that Oakwood have published over the past 80 years. Oakwood is the oldest specialist British transport publisher of its type still extant.      .... more

 

WYE VALLEY RAILWAY AND THE COLEFORD BRANCH by B.M.Handley and R Dingwall                   £11.95 The Wye Valley Railway linked Monmouth with Chepstow, and ran through the idyllic countryside along the Monmouthshire and Gloucestershire border. It is an area rich in industrial archeology. The coming of the railway vastly increased the popularity of the region with day trippers.  This enlarged and updated third edition with more reminiscences and new photographs has been reprinted.  .... more