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Books
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THE HELSTON BRANCH
by Stanley C Jenkins
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The Helston branch was the
southernmost railway on the British mainland, and also the very last
branch line to have been built in south-western Cornwall. Sadly, it was
also one of the first to close (1962 for passengers, 1964 for freight),
and perhaps for this reason it has not enjoyed the attention that has been
lavished upon certain neighbouring ex-Great Western Railway lines.
The branch has a special
historical significance as railway-owned buses were introduced in 1903
providing a service from Helston to the Lizard. The GWR liked to imply
that ‘road motors’ were its own idea. This was not quite true, as a
railway-owned road parcels van fitted with some passenger seats operated
in Northern Ireland earlier than this, and the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway
had also operated a short-lived road feeder service. Nevertheless, the bus
route to the Lizard is accepted by many as being the first truly
railway-owned bus service. |
This new, much-expanded
edition of The Helston Branch adopts a broadly chronological framework, in
that Chapter One deals with the pre-history of the line, while Chapters
Two and Three deal with the construction, history and operation of the
railway from its incorporation until the end of the GWR era. Chapter Four
is a detailed examination of the stations and route of the line, while
Chapter Five is devoted to the British Railways period. A considerable
amount of additional material has been added, including details of the
present-day ‘Helston Railway’, which has been re-established as a
‘heritage line’ and an added attraction at Trevarno Gardens, between
Nancegollan and Truthall Halt.
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Contents
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Introduction
Historical Summary
Origins of the Helston Branch
Pre-railway Helston – Early railway development –
The Hayle
Railway – Formation of the West Cornwall Railway – Effects
of the Railway Mania – Developments in the 1860s – The
Helston & Penryn Junction Railway – Formation of the
Helston Railway Company – Some details of the Act
Construction, Opening and Early Years
Cutting the first sod - Preliminaries to
construction –
Construction begins – Construction resumes - An Agreement
with the GWR - The ‘Dreaded Navvies’ – The Board of Trade
Report – Opening of the line – Some details of the line –
Early years of the line – The Helston Railway promoters: A
further note – The Lizard Light Railway
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The Line in
Operation
Operation in the early 20th century – Excursions
and tourist
traffic – The Lizard Road Motor Servicse – Trains and traffic in
the 1930s – Rural collection and delivery services – Other
developments - A line of character – World War II
Through the Window: The Route Described
Gwinear Road – Praze – Nancegollan – Truthall Halt
–
Helston
Later History and Minor Details
Dieselization in Cornwall – Road competition
– Towards
closure – The Beeching period – The withdrawal of
passenger services – The post-closure period – Conclusion –
Envoi – Trackwork – A note on tickets – Revival at Trevarno
Appendices
Bibliography
&
Sources
Index |
A5 format, 168 pages,
157 images, with a laminated card cover and a square-backed spine. |
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LP184 |
ISBN 978 0 85361
711 2 |
£ 12.95 |
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The Hereford & Gloucester Canal
by David Bick
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Throughout the length and breadth of England, no major navigation is so
lost in obscurity as the Hereford & Gloucester Canal. Unlike its famous
neighbour, the Thames & Severn, with which comparisons may be drawn, all
links with living memory have inevitably broken and apart from a brief
account here and there, its story has never been told. Small wonder
then, that these 34 miles of inland waterway are a thing forgotten.
Promoted on a doubtful footing during the Canal Mania of the 1790s, the
Hereford & Gloucester Canal has an absorbing history and industrial
archaeology, and it is hoped these pages will provide a useful
introduction to a subject which I have studied on and off for 30 years. |
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In particular, reference is made at some length to the part played by
Stephen Ballard, a local man by whose drive and ability the canal was at
last completed, and whose diaries have provided a vivid insight into days
before the railways came. For one who numbered among his friends and
acquaintances George and Robert Stephenson, Thomas Brassey, Joseph Locke,
and I.K. Brunel, Ballard¹s name, like the canal he built, has lapsed into
undeserved oblivion. The biographical notes included here are an attempt
to restore his position among the foremost contractors and engineers of
the day. No story of the canal would be complete without reference to
the Gloucester-Ledbury railway, which after 1885 assumed to a considerable
extent its role and route, and a chapter on this era is included. Of the
canal itself, many remnants survive to surprise those who care to leave
the beaten track - bridges, aqueducts, tunnels, and silent ribbons of
water which we can scarcely believe no barge has parted for a hundred
years. In this new enlarged edition we record the achievements, so far,
of the Herefordshire & Gloucestershire Canal Trust in its endeavours to
link two cities by water again, after a gap of well over a century. The
book is to A5 format and consists of 112 pages and is published on art
paper throughout, it includes more than 90 photographs, maps and plans. It
has a full colour laminated card with a square-backed spine. |
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C8 |
ISBN 0
85361 599 3
ISBN 978 0 85361 599 6 |
£ 8.95 |
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HILLHOUSE IMMORTALS, The Story of a London & North Western Railway Shed and
its Men
by Neil Fraser |
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London & North Western: a name that excites the imagination and charged the
atmosphere with great achievements in the realm of railway enterprise. One
of the LNWR's less fashionable engine sheds forms the background to this
work, a shed where there were no household names and few famous engines -
its stud being drawn from a worthy assortment of hard slogging dividend
earners. Situated half a mile north of Huddersfield on the Manchester-Leeds
route, Hillhouse Shed was animated by highly contrasting figures possessed
of many good human qualities, and a few with a share of human failings. Men
whose words and humour deserve recall and whose stirring deeds quickens the
blood. Remembrance of past generations of men and engines is tempered by
the fact that of all the characteristics with which humans are endowed, it
is often by some particular incident that they are remembered. Here is the
story of men who left their own indelible mark in railway history. A5
format, 112 pages with 113 photographs/plans. |
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RS5 |
ISBN 0 85361 548 9
ISBN 978 0 85361 548 4 |
£8.95 |
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HORNCASTLE and TATTERSHALL CANAL
by J.N. Clarke
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Horncastle’s link with the River Witham which enabled navigation south to
The Wash, and north to Lincoln, then via Fossdyke to the River Trent. The
opening of the GNR’s Lincolnshire Loop Line sent the canal into decline.
The canal was officially declared defunct in 1889 and so closed what had
been a vital link in the development of Horncastle’s growth and prosperity
during the first half of the 19th century.
96 pages with 35 photographs/maps etc. Art paper throughout to A5 size.
Two-colour Linson cover.
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C6 |
ISBN 0 85361 398 2
ISBN 978 0 85361 398 5 |
£4.95 |
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HORSE TRAMS OF THE BRITISH
ISLES
by R.W. Rush |
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The first type of public
railed transport, the horse tramway, seems to have been sadly neglected by
historians. This is not intended to be a detailed history of all horse
tramways, indeed such an attempt would be nigh impossible. It seeks only
to trace the development from the inception, well over a century ago, of
the horse tramways in general, and to compare some of the various designs
of cars, and the firms
who built them. A list of horse car systems in the British Isles is given
as an Appendix, and is believed to be complete as far as the author can
discover. It is hoped that the book will throw some light on what hitherto
has been a very neglected subject.
The book is to A5 format and
consists of 104 pages and includes 23 of
Mr Rush's plans of
horse trams, all reproduced to 4 mm scale. More than 50 photographs are
also included. It has a laminated colour card cover with square-backed
spine. |
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LP227 |
ISBN 0
85361 600 0
ISBN 978 0 85361 600 9 |
£8.95 |
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HUDDERSFIELD and KIRKBURTON BRANCH
by J.N. Fisher |
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The story of an unusual railway, as it was the only London & North Western
Railway branch in an area where Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway branches
proliferated. The branch opened for passengers in 1867, just 20 years
after the railway first reached Huddersfield. The passenger service was
relatively short-lived, and ceased, apart from specials, in 1930. Goods
services continued over the whole of the branch for a further 35 years and
over a truncated section into the 1970s. In addition to the two terminal
stations, there were three other stations along the line at Deighton,
Kirkheaton, and Fenay Bridge and Lepton. Although constructed and operated
as a branch it was originally intended as a through route to Barnsley and
the Yorkshire coalfield. It was perhaps in its service to industry where
the benefits of the branch were most in evidence. In addition to carrying
raw materials in for local industry, and manufactured goods out, the
railway connected directly to a number of private sidings and even fully
fledged industrial railway systems. |
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The largest and the best private
industrial railway in the district served ICI’s Dalton Works, this system
consisted of around 20 miles of track. Interest in the branch has already been
re-kindled with the re-opening of a passenger station at Deighton.
There is also currently a proposal which could result in the relaying of
the first nine furlongs of the branch to enable ICI Organics to convey
bulk train loads to its works. And so in spite of the early loss of a
passenger service from this branch the final chapter may well not have
been written and it is just possible that at least a section of the line
could again provide some service which will be of benefit to the local
economy. A5 format, 80 pages, art paper throughout and including 66
photographs and illustrations with a 2-colour Linson cover and a
square-backed spine. |
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LP202 |
ISBN 0 85361 510 1
ISBN 978 0 85361 510 1 |
£ 6.95 |
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Hunslet 4-6-0T No.1215 was one
of a class of locomotives built to the order of the British War Department
for use by what became the Directorate of Light Railways. This
organization used 600mm gauge railways to supply the trenches by bridging
the gap between the end of the standard gauge railways and the relatively
static front line of World War I on the Western front. They were used to
move huge quantities of troops, casualties, shells, rations and other
supplies over a network that, at its full extent, included over 3,000
miles of track.
Apart from being one of the
largest classes of one single type of narrow gauge locomotive built within
the UK, the vast majority were also completed within the space of three
years. A total of 155 of them were ordered by the War Department from the
Hunslet Engine Co. at a time when Hunslet were also constructing
howitzers, shells, and machinery to make shells, as well as a limited
number of other locomotives. By comparison, in peacetime they averaged
about 40 locomotives of all types per year. |
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remarkable feature of these machines is the diverse locations in which
they, and the nine built post-war, ended up. From hydro-electric
schemes of the Scottish Highlands, to the pampas of Argentina,
Harrogate gasworks to Australian canefields, Oxfordshire ironstone to
Palestinian power stations, Nepalese forests and Chilean nitrate
mines, all made good use of these neat little locomotives. Happily
1215 survives and resides at the Apedale Heritage Centre.
A5 format 56 pages
43 illustrations (18 in colour)
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Contents
Introduction
The Hunslets Get Call-Up Papers
Specification and Construction
War Work
Demob and Army Surplus
Retirement and the Long Journey Home
Hunslet 1215 in the UK
Archaeology on 1215
Other Survivors
Bibliography |
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X99 |
ISBN
978 0 85361
709 9 |
£
7.95 |
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