Victorian Railway History Reprinted

The Victorian government commissioned NSW academic Robert Lee to write a
history of the Victorian Railways, to be published in time for the
sesquicentenary in 2004, but the book failed to appear at that time. No
surprises there perhaps.

"The Railways of Victoria 1854-2004" was finally published by Melbourne
University Press (MUP) in September last year, with no apparent
publicity and an obviously limited print run. Consequently it sold out
before most people knew it was even available.

The book looked as if it might become like L.J. Harrigan's "Victorian
Railways to '62", which is now worth well over $100 in good nick.
However MUP tells me there has been a reprint and that the book should
reappear in bookstores in the next couple of weeks. I don't know how
big the second print run is.

Paul Westcott

Paul Westcott wrote:
> The Victorian government commissioned NSW academic Robert Lee to write a
> history of the Victorian Railways, to be published in time for the
> sesquicentenary in 2004, but the book failed to appear at that time. No
> surprises there perhaps.
>
> "The Railways of Victoria 1854-2004" was finally published by Melbourne
> University Press (MUP) in September last year, with no apparent
> publicity and an obviously limited print run. Consequently it sold out
> before most people knew it was even available.
>
> The book looked as if it might become like L.J. Harrigan's "Victorian
> Railways to '62", which is now worth well over $100 in good nick.
> However MUP tells me there has been a reprint and that the book should
> reappear in bookstores in the next couple of weeks. I don't know how
> big the second print run is.
>
> Paul Westcott
I ran into the guy doing research at PRO in `03. I thought it odd that
someone from Sydney was doing a history of VR. I haven't seen the
results either.
Cheers,
Ray

ray wrote:

> I ran into the guy doing research at PRO in `03. I thought it odd that
> someone from Sydney was doing a history of VR. I haven't seen the
> results either.

The commissioning of Robert Lee surprised people in the professional
history-writing area in Victoria too. Apparently he's written on
railways on the Indian sub-continent.

Paul Westcott