Impermanent Ways: the closed railway lines of Britain, Volume 15, Across the shires

摘要

This is a ragbag of photographs. It is not a 'then and now', but one or the other, at random. The previous volumes were limited geographically, whereas this extends patchily across the whole of rural England and Scotland, clearly covering areas the author has happened to visit (all but one of the photographs were taken by him). Some locations (though not photographs) are actually duplicated. The book is said to cover more of railway infrastructure than previous titles, though one would not especially notice it apart from a section on North West power depots in 1968 - which actually were all in use, not closed, and the photos are primarily of locomotives. The captions can be extensive and informative, though with no consistent structure. The book is nicely produced, and is likely to be bought as a present for someone who is vaguely known to 'like trains'.