Swansea Vale Railway Book 2

[s.w.johnson]

The long awaited second book on the Swansea Vale Railway is due to be released on the 28th April. For those of you who are railway modellers, it will be on sale at the Bristol Model Railway show in Thornbury. There will also be a formal book launch in Pontardawe on Friday 28th at the Pontardawe Institute. There will be free food, always known to be a big attraction for Welsh Railways fans. All are welcome.

So what is different about Book 2??

Well it contains a full history of the SVR. The first book was just an introduction and there is a huge amount more in this book. For fans of engines painted green with lots of brass on them there is a lot about when you used massive gauge widening (around 2.4 feet) and even pictures of pannier tanks. Quite a lot of these.

For you hardcore Midland fans, there is a huge number of previously unpublished photos of the SVR including some gems from the huge collection of Neil Parkhouse.

Written in the language of Shakespeare and even using some of the same words (shall I compare thee to a 1F, thou are more beautiful) - this is a book not to be missed.

[Rhobat Bryn]

Who is the publisher?

[s.w.johnson]

Lightmoor - Neil Parkhouse and Ian Pope.

The final proofs were signed off yesterday, the email to the printers will be sent on Monday - this is how books are done these days - so any remaining mistakes are now fixed. It is always a nightmare with a book checking a rechecking. The text, captions etc have been checked by no fewer than 7 people but the gremlins will undoubtedly have left a few mistakes in there. The printing will be done in Poland.

I have to apologise in advance to readers but the spellings of Welsh place names are all as they were in the days of the railway. This is the publisher's policy. The original draft was done with correct Welsh spellings.

[s.w.johnson]

The cost will be £30 which is about the going rate for around 260 pages.

[Wagonworks_andy]

We will have some copies available at a discount price to members soon.

[s.w.johnson]

The book is now available. It arrived from the printers on Friday and Tudor, Keri and I picked up copies on Monday. These will be available at the launch on Friday which will be held in Pontardawe Arts Institute, starting at 2.30. All are welcome. There will be refreshments and a bar. The refreshments are free. The bar isn't.

I am really pleased with the book. This is the culmination of several decades of research and to see it in print is very gratifying.

The book has 264 pages, around 500 photographs, almost all of the 2 chain plans, signal box diagrams for most of the signal boxes and examples of tickets and other paperwork.

The cost is £30 and it is interesting to compare this with our first book. This had 92 pages, around 180 photographs and cost £18 in 2004. If you allow for inflation, the equivalent of £18 today is around £26. So the new book is a real bargain compared to the first one.

[Wagonworks_andy]

The book will be available at the AGM on the 3rd June at a discount price to members.