Top Ten Railway Books

How about Ian Allan 'ABC Combined Volume'.

allan tracy wrote:
> How about Ian Allan 'ABC Combined Volume'.

....and Aidan L F Fuller's "British Locomotive Shed Directory".

>
> rail subsidy under BR - circa £1bn
> rail subsidy now - somewhere north of £4bn
>
> as a taxpayer, I'm not entirely sure the railway is 4x better than in
> 1992..

.. but first you must ask the question how much of that is WCML
upgrade and second how much of that is down to British Rail
bequeathing a turkey.

Take out WCML upgrade and things don't look half as bad and then there
was the HSE debacle that had nothing to do with privatisation surely.

>
> Well regardless of your views on his views on privatisation, you would
> surely admit that his account of the Hatfield debacle is jaw-dropping.
> IMHO it's worth the money for that alone.
>

Unquestionably, however accidents are always a risk through oversite
when you undertake the sort of reorganisation thet was privatisation
but that is not necessarily a good enough reason for not doing it.

> 3. Platform Souls by Nicholas Whittaker
> This is one of the few books that attempts to explain the motivation
> of that much maligned breed, the trainspotter. Funny and tender by
> turns, it ends up being a great book about men and what makes them
> tick.

No this one. Like a 'Fever Pitch' of gricing, except even worse (if
you can imagine that).