In Search of Steam 1962 -1968 by Robert Adley

Robert Adley's mission in 1966 was to photograph in colour (at a time when colour photography was still comparatively rare) the last days of working steam in Britain. As a result of this Odyssey, which took the author and his camera throughout the four seasons of the year to railway station, engine shed, shunting year, countryside bridge and embankment, he has compiled an impressive collection of over 1,000 colour transparencies.

Carefully, preserved until now, Robert Adley's album provides an unique colour record, which it would be impossible to recapture from the preserved steam railways of today. His book displays sixty-four colour subjects in all their glory. Even the macabre scrapyard evokes an acute nostalgia for another forgotten way of life.

This book is not just about locomotives and rolling stock. It describes how the railways grew in Britain and in many cases faded away. The historian will have much to learn from the Ordnance Survey maps, which the author has ingeniously used to illustrate the changing pattern of the British railway systems throughout the years.

The author's fast and often amusing text, full of anecdotes and on-the-spot detail, will fascinate railway enthusiasts throughout the land.

Robert Adley was Member of Parliament for Christchurch and Lymington and a spokesman on transport and tourist affairs. He is a confirmed and longstanding railway and transport enthusiast.

Hardback