RECOMMENDED READING
ISBN 9780955946721
£9.95
Released at the end of June 2009 was the latest Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Society publication, Volume 2 in Noel Coates’ definitive history of the railways of Rose Grove.
Rose Grove, near Burnley, was a major railway centre in its heyday, with marshalling yards for the extensive freight and minerals traffic and a busy locomotive depot that was eventually one of the final three to close in August 1968.
The first volume included an historical overview of the area and a detailed look at each location therein. The book contained 98 pages with 159 photographs, many of which had never previously been published, these accompanied by numerous drawings and tables. The new Volume Two has 113 pages between its card covers and contains around 108 pictures, again mostly new material, dealing this time more specifically with working arrangements and signalling.
The profusion of tables relating essentially to train operation clearly emphasises that these two books were never merely intended to address the operation of the shed itself in isolation – although, as in the first volume, there are numerous pictures of Rose Grove engines on and off shed. Perhaps, some might consider that the sheer quantity of such tables is overpowering, but for the more serious student of the railways in this locality, or for those who knew it well during the days of steam, that content is both comprehensive, clearly extremely well-researched and makes fascinating reading.
There are only 2 or 3 minor niggles from this particular reviewer. Firstly, the font size of the main body of the text is felt to be slightly larger than it necessarily needs to be and a more condensed version may well have resulted in less frequent ‘page-turning’, as well as more space being released for other items.
A number of the images in Volume 1 suffered from being printed far too darkly, often to the extent that detail was almost entirely lost and to the detriment of an otherwise first-class publication. In Volume 2, that particular issue seems to have been addressed and, although a tiny handful of the illustrations are still slightly on the dark side, reproduction is otherwise generally vastly improved.
As an aside, although the colour image at the foot of Page 208 is credited, the wrong name has been inserted … it is coincidence indeed that that particular picture was actually taken by this reviewer!!
Finally, the fact that one or two of the illustrations of the earlier indigenous motive power were actually taken elsewhere on the L&Y system should not be considered as a detraction, but merely as confirmation that there is a dearth of suitable images more localised in nature, due to many earlier photographers preferring to obtain their pictures closer to their homes. That, of course, applies equally to Rose Grove and to our own Lostock Hall shed – where similar difficulties have been experienced in sourcing appropriate material!
Price-wise, no-one can quibble at the extremely reasonable £9.95 plus postage and packing being asked for both Volumes 1 and 2. Indeed, there are many similar publications currently out there on the market, for which sums of often approaching twice that amount are being demanded!
Copies can be obtained from the Society’s Publications Sales Officer, Alex Hodson, at 8, St Michaels Close, Lawhitton, Launceston, Cornwall PL15 9NF Tel: 01566 776463 or sales@lyrs.org.uk
