Description

Heart of the Somerset & Dorset Railway – Alan Hammond

Original price £20. Numbered copy

Good Condition, slght creasing to top of dust cover and name inside

Over many years Alan Hammond has recorded countless interviews with former employees of the Somerset & Dorset Railway on behalf of the Somerset & Dorset Railway Trust. The result has been a remarkable archive of memories as well as an extensive collection of photographs of working life on the line. Alan’s last book, Life on the Somerset & Dorset Railway, included many of the fruits of this enterprise and has, in turn, produced yet more splendid personal photographs and stories.

There are accounts here of firemen and porters, fitters and drivers; memories of childhood journeys; stories of whole families who worked on the railway – the Atwells and Rossiters of Ashcott, and three generations of the Jeans family at Stalbridge, Templecombe and Corfe Mullen; humorous accounts of incidents in the Home Guard; even the account of how one romance flourished from an illicit ride on the footplate to Shepton Mallet.

But once again the real jewels of this book are the photographs – the staff of the railway in official poses, in casual groups, and in individual portraits; the great variety of locomotives and trains; and a wide selection of locations, both in their heyday and in their demise.

The foreword has been written by another great railway enthusiast, the songwriter and record producer Pete Waterman.

Hardback with dust jacket, 160 pages, black & white photographs