Top 10 Railway Books

[John Ashworth]

For some reason this four year old article has just been mentioned on the uk.railway newsgroup. But it's as valid now as it was then. I've read ## 2, 3, 6 and 9 and all of them are excellent.

Ian Marchant's top 10 railway books

* guardian.co.uk,
* Wednesday July 21, 2004

Ian Marchant is a comedian, bookseller and novelist and the author of Parallel Lines Or Journeys on the Railway of Dreams in which he examines the history of the British railway and meets those who still hold it close to their hearts.

"Sadly, given the importance of the railway to the history of Britain, lots of books about trains are frankly dull. They have titles like Branch Lines To East Grinstead, which, with the best will in the world, do not make riveting reading on the beach. Here are 10 which do."

1. Broken Rails by Christian Wolmar

Everyone knows that rail privatisation was a botched-up nonsense, but no one explains why better than Wolmar. This will scare you.

2. The Necropolis Railway by Andrew Martin

Martin's dark and funny novel brilliantly encapsulates the atmosphere of the Edwardian railway, and the pride and skill of the men who worked it, all wrapped up in a compelling plot.

3. Platform Souls by Nicholas Whittaker

This is one of the few books that attempts to explain the motivation of that much maligned breed, the trainspotter. Funny and tender by turns, it ends up being a great book about men and what makes them tick.

4. Chronicles of a Garden Railway by WAD Strickland

Virtually unobtainable but, if you keep your eyes open in charity shops, you might get lucky. Buried amongst a great deal of sensible technical advice on the problems of running an OO gauge model layout in a suburban garden is an admittedly unintentionally hilarious account of family life in the 50s and 60s.

5. The Victorian Railway by Jack Simmons

Not just the best book on Victorian railways, but one of the best books about Victorian Britain. The critics piled up the superlatives, and it deserves them all.

6. The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux

This is the best of Theroux's several railway travel books. From London to Saigon, and back via the Trans-Siberian, he manages to capture both the excitement and the tedium of train travel.

7. The Railway Traveller's Handy Book by Anon

First published in 1862, and republished in 1971, this was the first ever guide to how to travel by train. A classic of High Victorian comedy, sadly out of print, but fairly easy to pick up. You will never feel the same about going through tunnels again.

8. Railway Adventure by LTC Rolt

Rolt was a fascinating figure, who ended up being the reluctant father of both the canal restoration and steam preservation movements. This is the story of how he helped save one of The Great Little Railways of Wales, the Tal-Y-Llyn. His biographies of the Stephenson's and Brunel are highly recommended too.

9. The Railway Children by E Nesbit

You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll learn the value of wearing red flannelette knickers.

10. Underground to Everywhere by Stephen Halliday

The Tube is the only railway which is cool; all the others are romantic, which is a very different thing. This is the best single volume introduction to the subject, and good looking too, as you'd expect from a railway that has always valued good design.