Book Review: Rails Across the Isle of Man in the 1950s

 

Let's be honest. I'm a sucker for any book with photos of Isle of Man trains or trams in it. You don't need to put many pictures between the covers before I know a copy is going to be added to my bookshelves. 

Spotting this latest addition to the world of Manx trains, I pre-ordered a copy knowing there wasn't any point in pondering whether I'd buy a copy. It's not the most expensive at £9.99 and I don't know when I'll get to Mona's Isle to pick up a copy. 

If I'm honest, I hadn't expected much. Just some more photos a lot like the hundreds I already have. But I was wrong. 

First, the basics - 64 pages. Softback cover. 20cm square. All photos, except the cover, well reproduced in black and white with good length captions. 

The surprise though was to find a clear shot of the Douglas Head funicular. One where you can see the car properly. 

Then there is a view of Foxdale from an angle I've never seen before. One that gives me an idea what happens at the end of the station, and clearly shows the uneven platform edge. One day I'll build that model, and when I do, this will be a big help. 

The prize though is a shot of Sea Lion rock cafe on the Groudle Glen. I have never seen any photos of this before. I didn't really know what existed out there. Now I do. I'd have paid for just this one picture (I am a GGR obsessive after all). 

With more examination, I'm sure there are other gems that I haven't spotted, but they won't beat these three. 

So, I expected little and am astounded. How can there be more photos turning up of this little island? 

I bought my copy of Rails Across the Isle of Man in the 1950s from the Lexicon Bookshop in Douglas by mail order.

The book is back!

Yes, my first novel is out again. We've gone back to basics and done something we should have the first time around - employed a proper proof-reader.

Over time, it's become more and more obvious that our "publisher's" attempt at proof reading was somewhat lacking. Now, while I'll never claim perfection, it's been well sorted. There have been hours of tweaking and correcting plus a tiny amount of rewriting. After that a bit more proof reading and polishing. Both Candice and I are now happy in a way we are with Kate vs the Navy, which was proof read by a pro.

There's also a new cover and an author interview. Basically though, it's still funny and after having to re-read it while correcting the text, I'm still proud of our efforts.

So, it's back on sale from Amazon in both paperback and Kindle versions. Go and buy a copy.

Book Review: Felix the railway cat by Kate Moore

Publisher: Michael Joseph

ISBN: 978-0718185435

A5 Softback

272 pages


If you profess and interest in railways, then there is a good chance that you'll find a copy of Felix the Railway Cat under the Christmas tree this year.

A well-meaning relative will have spotted this on their tour of Tesco and thought, "That's got trains in it. I'm sure he'll like it."

The book tells the story of Felix, a cat adopted by staff as Huddersfield railway station. There are heartwarming stories as the cat learns to love its new environment and the people who occupy it.

Let's be honest - this isn't a nerdy book full of  rivet detail. It's a human interest story with added cat. We actually learn quite a lot about the way a modern station operates and it certainly stimulated a desire to visit the place, not just to see the cat. A quick look on the web shows Huddersfield to be quite a size and full of interesting detail.

There's quite a bit about becoming the centre of an Internet phenomenon. How it happened and the pressures that it places those who are part of the story under. If you aspire to web stardom, it's worth reading for this alone. You'll not be surprised to find Felix has his own page on Facebook.

Enjoyed with a few drinks, it's a pleasant read and you can generously pass it on to the rest of the family afterward. Can't say that about Great Western telegraph pole ceramic insulators or whatever else you really wanted. I enjoyed it anyway.

(Thanks to Chris Mead for supplying this after a supermarket shopping trip)

Book Review: The Hovercraft. A history by Ashley Hollebone

Publisher: The History Press

ISBN: 978-0752-464794

A5 Softback

188 pages

£19.99 

Unusual forms of transport fascinate me. When that involves a machine that was once seen as "the future", it's even more appealing. Because of this, I love hovercraft.

Ashley Hollebone also loves hovercraft. Unlike me, he's done more than take a day trip on one, he re-built a personal hovercraft (Starbreeze RX-2000) and then wrote a book on their history.

The books is more comprehensive than anything I've read before. Starting with the very early days and Christopher Cockerell, we progress through the SRN-1 and its first crossing of the English Channel right up the present day.

Along the way there are rather more manufacturers on the scene than you might expect. I'd never heard of Cushioncraft for example, but as the cover shows, they produced some fantastic looking machines. Some were not a million miles away from the Star Wars land speeder seen back in 1977. I wonder if they were any influence on the design?

Technical fans will enjoy the chapter on how a hovercraft works, not just the "blow air out of the bottom and it floats bit" but the way that this is carried out in a sophisticated way so the craft rises in a controlled manner. It turns out that while a skirt might make a hovercraft more efficient, it isn't essential. Should you feel the urge to add one though, it's far more than a simple curtain around the edge of your platform.

Hovercraft, like faster than sound passenger flight are possibly one of those technologies whose time has been and gone. The wonderful giant SRN4 craft are no more than museum pieces now. The service to and from the Isle of Wight still runs, but there is a lot of pressure to build a fixed link to the island which would surely kill it.

For the moment, the future is with military service. Cost is secondary to speed and maneuverability here so there is a real advantage in moving men and machines on a cushion of air.

The text is very readable, this is a page-turner. Better still, plenty of photos illustrate many of the points as you go along. There were places I felt could have benefited from more pictures and others where the photo could have been in a more appropriate chapter, but nothing major.

The main criticism of the book is that it tries to cover too much. Maglevs are NOT hovercraft to my mind and neither are ground effect vessels. Yes, they float and don't fly, but to me, if it doesn't blow air then it's not a hovercraft. I'm happy that the French Aerotrain makes it in, but we get next to nothing on the British Hovertrain.

Oddly, the chapter on rescue craft ignores the RNLI hovercraft but these them pop up in the Griffon Hoverwork chapter at the end.

These are niggles though. This book did its job of inspiring me to want to know more. Not because there was anything missing, but because it sparked my enthusiasm for more pictures and videos of interesting and obscure craft. Rather a lot of my time recently has been spend on the web performing searches for things I've just read about.

Buy The Hovercraft. A History from Amazon. Or do what I did and borrow a copy from your local library.

Book Review: James May's Man Lab

You are thinking, "This is one of those rubbish TV series tie-in books. Why is he blogging this?"

I would reply, because I bought it very cheap in a charity shop, think James May is very sound on the subject of spanner arrangement and anyway, I've not done much bloggable modelling for the last few days.

Man Lab is indeed a TV tie in to the series of the same name. To be honest, on telly it came across as cartoony blokey and full of set-piece stunts that we are supposed to believe are spontaneous and hilarious.

The problem is that the basic premise is men can't do proper men's stuff like making and repairing things. In telly land, this is perfectly acceptable - witness the sneering dished out to anyone who knows how to do something more useful than reading an autocue for example.

On the page, this works rather better. We actually get some useful information and because it's got a picture of the bloke who used to be in Top Gear on the front, it is acceptable to read it.

Talking of pictures, for some reason there are many cartoons of May looking very much like Garth from the Daily Mirror years ago. I'm probably the only person to have spotted this.

Subjects covered include taking a penalty, fixing a toaster, mending clocks, making fish finger sandwiches, draw a portrait, tuning a guitar, escaping from prison, fixing punctures in a bike tyre, making tea, casting a concrete worktop, polishing boots, replacing a pane of glass, making a crazy golf course, wiring a plug and getting stuck items out of a vending machine.

It's all suitably jokey but hidden in there is some proper information. There's some obvious dumbing down, and the black & white format doesn't help much, but you probably could do some of these things after just reading this book.

I particularly like the tool of the week sections covering hammers, chisels, drills (nice explanation of the difference between HSS and carbon steel bits), saws and the plane. Knowing my stuff a little, it was clear that this was accurate and even helpful. OK, the plane bit was a thin but in a world where people don't know how to carry out even the most basic DIY, if they can get over the idea that it isn't all a joke, there is stuff to learn.

Surprisingly good.

James May's Man Lab Book of usefulness on Amazon

Book Review: How about railway modelling by John Craven

If you are a sensible age, one of the features of your youth would be getting back home from school and watching "John Craven's Newsround". 5 minutes of real news presented in the same way the stuff for grown-ups was, albeit with some of the complicated facts being explained.

Anyway, back in 1979, he wrote this little gem for EP Publishing. I imagine they were very happy to secure his services. Back then, presenters simply didn't get thier name in the titles of TV shows and Craven's was known to pretty much every child, even those who watched ITV.

More to the point, he was the sort of celebrity that descent middle-class parents would approve of, just the sort who would encourage their offspring to build a model railway in the first place.

Anyway, you might think that John's efforts in this would extend to a couple of (ghost written) paragraphs in the front with someone else doing the work. Not true, he actually writes the first section of the book introducing the hobby. It's as good a general introduction as you are likely to read anywhere and despite its age, still works as an advert for the hobby.

I think this is due to the writers journalistic background. While he admits he isn't a railway modeller, I think this helps as he handles the concepts sympathetically but in a way that the general public will appreciate.

Starting with a couple of pages entitled, "A hobby for schoolboys, super-stars and bishops" he then carries on with meeting modellers, joining a club, exhibitions, designing a layout and several mentions of Allan Downes.

For more technical information we have to carry on to part 2 of the book written by John Cockroft. He has 60 pages to run through the basics and even not so basics of our hobby. Being the 70s, there is quite a lot in both sections about building loco kits. Cockroft even gives us stuff on compensating wagons, something considered advanced by many modellers today but in a book for kids then.

Truth is, this is a much better book than you might think. If you want some ideas on how we might present the hobby to outsiders, read and analyse the first section. For more practical stuff, enjoy the second.

The book left me wondering one thing. At the end of part one, Craven says:

As for me, I somehow escaped its attractions, until now! But, after taking a long look at the hobby and meeting some of the people who are deeply involved in it, I am ready to "have a go" at starting my own railway.

I wonder if he did?

Book Review: The Hellingly Hospital Railway by Peter A Harding

If you know my model making output, you'll be surprised to see this book being reviewed on the blog - after all, it's the one that inspired me to build a model of The Hellingly Hospital Railway years ago.

This review is simply to point readers interested in unusual railway lines at the recently revised edition. Peter got in touch with me and borrowed a big box of photographs and research notes put together when I was building and exhibiting the model. This has allowed him to update the text a bit. There are also several more photos added since the 1989 version was published.

One of the big revelations appears on page 20, where the photo of tramcar and electric loco is printed in full - it was cropped to length in the older book - and now shows the front of the weigh bridge hut. I spent years looking for details of this building for my model! I'm now relieved to see I didn't do such a bad job after all.

For the price, even if you have an older copy, it's worth getting the latest version. Judging by the interest my model generated and amazing number of people who knew the line personally, I hope it sells well.

The Hellingly Hospital Railway is available direct from the author:
Peter A Harding, "Mossgiel", Bagshot Road, Knaphill, Woking, Surrey, GU21 2SG
Price: £4.00 plus 50p post & packing

Book Review: Full Cicle by Jane Evans

Subtitled, Ted Evans and the story of The Model Shop, this book is a history of both a man, a shop and a hobby.

Ted Evans founded "The Model Shop" in Northampton in 1937. An aeromodeller, he originally saw it as a way of supplying the demand for high-quality materials for those seriously building rubber-band powered model aircraft. "Super Model Aircraft Supplies" - the name can still be seen on small plate above the door today - was a mecca for those 1930s model makers who aspired to the leading edge of competitive flying in the Wakefield Cup.

As a designer of prize winning model aircraft, Ted was well placed to understand his customers needs but clever enough to know that a general model shop would survive the turbulence of the hobby industry better than a specialised outlet.

The book takes us through Ted's life, especially his aircraft designs, but against the background of model making as a hobby. The authors has researched many the history of many major firms producing models and kits including Bassett Lowke, Hornby, Airfix, Mainline, Lima and Bachmann. These all come in to the story at various points in the narrative. Although the main focus might be Ted and the shop, it's really a history of our hobby and how it has changed through the years.

Nowhere is this better illustrated than the title. In the early days of modelling, there were shops a-plenty. Every reasonable sized town would have several outlets and there was next to no mail order. Then the world changed, shops closed and people ordered by post and later on-line. Now, the wheel is turning again and customers are apparently realising the benefit of dealing with real, knowledgeable people face-to-face.

Although not a fat volume at 120 pages, the test is full of fascinating information. I suppose I could pick the odd hole in some of the model railway history but only on very minor points. Presumably the other branches of the hobby suffer in a similar way although being much less familiar with them, I wouldn't know.

What I do know is that if you are interested in history from the perspective of model makers, then this is an excellent read.

Full Circle from The Model Shop, Northampton.