A nostalgic trip back in time to when the local travelling fair used to set up their Perkins and Gardner diesel generators in the local park. Modellers will love this nostalgic collection too which includes Richard Walton's Foden S21 better known as the Mickey Mouse or Spaceship with its fibreglass cab, the attendant vehicle to the Meteorite ride. An ex-Rugby Cement powder tank eight wheeler was extensively rebuilt and upgraded to transport the Stanley Reeves Satellite ride. There are the Chipperfield Brothers with their Twist ride pulled by a Dodge Tractor Unit 342DMW with the LAD Cab, the Monsters Revenge ride at Newcastle Town Moor Fair in 1982, and heavy haulage and imaginative articulated units hinged to carry the Leyland 'Octopus' RBM44 to use with Dodgems or a double decker bus with its top deck cut down to provide sleeping quarters, here photographed at Skipton Fair. The gallery includes hundreds of nostalgic archive images reproduced to the best possible quality. 72 page large softback, 20 x 16cm.

Railway writer Fred Kerr details the many classes of BR diesel locomotives that have been preserved, noting that some purchases had been made with the hope of operating them on the National Network. The Railways Bill of 1993 provided opportunities that allowed this to happen. This book showcases such locomotives at work during the early part of the 21st century up until December 2016 and during this period many new train operators entered the market. Their early operations used elderly locomotives withdrawn from service by their original operators until new locomotives could be purchased. When British Railways was privatised in 1994 it included the right of any locomotive owner or operator to operate locomotives on the National Network subject to them being fitted with the necessary equipment to work trains and being approved by Network Rail to be fit to do so. Whilst this right was geared to the continued operation of steam traction, it also opened the doors to the owners of modern traction, both diesel and electric, to operate their locomotives subject to the same operating conditions. ROSCOs then leased stock to the individual TOCs and new railway companies served niche markets such as Train Operation and sought to reduce start-up costs by either hiring preserved locomotives as exemplified by Cardiff Valley Railways hiring for peak-hour services or buying withdrawn locomotives as exemplified by DRS. Later new operators such as Colaf Railfreight also found it economic to use 'heritage traction'. This special album celebrates and illustrates their continuing work and notes the rise and fall of some new companies through changes of locomotive ownerships. A case in point is Class 47/8 47832 which has been operated by Fragonset, Victa Rail, DRS and WDRC since being withdrawn from service by First Great Western in 2004. Spectacularly clear colour photographs with extended captions showcase the Class 33 Birmingham RC&W, Class 37 English Electric Company, Class 43 BR Workshops, up to Class 86 BR Doncaster, Class 87 BREL Crewe and the Class 92 Locomotive which began powering the Caledonian Sleeper service. Hundreds of colour photos, 128pp in landscape format. A Pen & Sword publication.

Sub-titled 'The Cowardice of Captain Stinson', here is 'a terrific, rollicking adventure.' - Simon Garfield. The emigrant ship William and Mary departed from Liverpool with 208 British, Irish and Dutch emigrants in early 1853, captained by young American Timothy Stinson. The vessel was sailing for New Orleans when the ship wrecked in the Bahamas in mysterious circumstances. Instead of grounding the ship on a nearby shore, or building rafts for the passengers, Stinson and the majority of his crew sneaked away in lifeboats - murdering at least two of the emigrants with a hatchet as they did so. They reported the ship sunk with all on board lost, but the passengers kept the ship afloat, and two days later were rescued by heroic wreckers as the ship went down. Now over 160 years on, the tale of the travellers murdered in Bahamian waters and the hundreds who escaped thanks to kindly wreckers can finally be told. Stinson is no longer getting away with murder. We read about Susannah Diamond, the English 19 year old hoping for a new life in St. Louis with her family, husband, toddler and unborn child, and Izaak Roorda, one of a group of 87 Dutch emigrants seeking to settle in Wisconsin, who found the lifeboat more perilous than the sinking ship. Roorda recalls, 'Barely had I returned to the great ship than I and many passengers took to the pumps: fear, anxiety and shock drove each of us instinctively to look for a means to save ourselves...wailing and groaning filled the air...others climbed into the masts; it is impossible to form an image of our terrible and hopeless situation, the cabin filled with people and when an enormous creaking sound was heard in the ship below, we thought the whole vessel would sink immediately into the depths.' 162pp, photos and woodcuts.

Readers are privileged to see Hampshire Railways in the 1940s, the same time as Mike Jacobs first saw a sailor carrying bananas at Portsmouth Station. Personal reminiscences are combined with accurate factual information as Jacobs visits and travels on and around the Southern Region in the 1950s and early 60s. There are visits to Eastly, Gosport, Lyme Regis, Exmouth, the East Devon branches, a Feltham bound freight through Staines on a hot 18th June 1960 summer's day, an immaculate G16 no. 30495, ex-works, and awaiting running-in 1958 and a Plymouth to Brighton service waiting to leave Fareham engine no. 34040 Crewkerne. There are interviews with the Works Manager at Eastleigh and interesting facts on Mr Bulleid and his engines, and the story continues with equally wonderful descriptions of visits from Kent across to Cornwall. This new title is copiously illustrated with new material, many previously unpublished, a colour map, glossy large pages in softback and hundreds of nostalgic original images reproduced to the best possible quality. 112pp.

It was not until the Tramways Act of 1870 that a legal framework existed to permit the construction of street tramways. The American entrepreneur George Francis Train discovered this during the early 1860s when he endeavoured to build a number of street tramways in England. The Act imposed a duty upon the operator to maintain the strip of road 18" either side of the outer running rails at a time when roads were badly maintained in general, and at the end of the 21 year lease the local authority was entitled to purchase the assets of the company at a written-down value. The 1870 Act was subsequently amended, most notably with the Light Railways Act of 1860. The Portsmouth Street Tramways Company was formed by lines constructed by four different companies and the Plymouth Corporation employed 54 horse trams. There is a marvellous picture of number two pictured at St Jude's Church. Leicester, Wantage, Yarmouth and Gorleston, Bristol, Derby, Nottingham, Ipswich, Southampton, Norwich and Coventry, Gloucester, Grimsby, Exeter, Lincoln, Brighton, the Canvey Island Monorail, here are also some steam trains and a four-wheel petrol driven Simplex-type locomotive built by the Kent Construction Company in 1924, the open balcony cars supplied by Brush on Peckham P22 trucks during 1913 and 1914 among the hundreds of rare vintage images in this collection. There are maps and a key to abbreviations and the books is organised by the following chapters: Birmingham, Grimsby & Immingham, Leicester, Midland Metro, Nottingham Express Transit, Plymouth, Seaton, Southampton and lastly Preservation. The extensive volume covers all the post war systems from their inception through to closure with a superb range of images from horse drawn trams to the end. Colour, 168 very large glossy pages.

A superb photo gallery celebration of Oriana's farewell season. The cruise ship boasted Chaplin's Cinema which could accommodate 200 passengers at each show in tiered seating, a Theatre Royal at the forward end of the Prom Deck, a 650 seat high-tech modern theatre decorated in rich colours and dark woods, Crichton's Card Room named after the General Manager of P&O from 1951 to 1965, the Oasis Spa and Saloon, Lord's Tavern, Pacific Lounge, Harlequin's Nightclub with its beautiful marquetry dance floor, Anderson's elegant bar, the Riviera Pool on the Lido Deck, the Conservatory and all the bars and restaurants, cabins inside and balcony, and crew-only areas, technical information and the terraced aft decks which were a hallmark of her design. Cruise the world from the comfort of your armchair, promenade the deck or dip into the crystal pools as we are taken on a special tour of what was a new generation of British-based cruise ships specially designed for the UK market. Built by Meyer Werft in Germany and named by HM the Queen, she entered service in 1995 and 25 years later became a much-loved classic with an active cruising schedule visiting ports including Hong Kong, Sydney and Cape Town. Written and photographed by a well-known maritime historian, this is a fitting tribute. Large sized landscape softback packed with colour photos. 96pp.
Click YouTube icon to see this book come to life on video.

From an exciting and modestly-priced series of railway books from Trams-Pennine Publishing packed with period colour photographs and a highly informative text telling the history of various diesel and electric locomotive and multiple units used on Britain's railways. Veteran railway enthusiasts will love these hitherto unpublished colour photographs and this volume charts the careers and liveries that later became known as Classes 44, 45 and 46, collectively nicknamed as Peaks after the 'mountain top' names that were bestowed upon the first ten members of the class to be delivered, plus those bearing regimental names, then passing through the different variations in appearances and liveries over the years. In addition, there are 17 of which have been preserved, and for modellers they can be recreated in miniature. Released into service all over painted green, there were later additions of small yellow warning panels to improve visibility to those on the trackside. The life stories of individual trains pictured show how all their name changes, re-numberings, going into storage, resting, restoration, missing name plates and final withdrawal, their nicknames like The Lady for one Class 46, originally named Leicestershire and Derbyshire Yeomanry on 14th April 1962 in front of a crowd at Derby Midland Station. With their distinctive yellow noses, the book has approximately 60 marvellous archive colour photos. 60 page paperback.

Sub-titled 'The Early Years of Powered Flight in the UK', Britain in the 19th century was at the forefront of powered flight and across the country many places became centres of innovation and experimentation as increasing numbers of daring men took to the skies. It was in 1799 at Brompton Hall that Sir George Cayley Bart put forward ideas which formed the basis of powered flight. Widely regarded as the father of aviation, his ancestral home is the 'cradle' of British aviation. There were balloon flights at Hendon from 1862, although attempts at powered flights from the area later used as the famous airfield do not seem to have been particularly successful. Despite this, Louis Bleriot established a flying school there in 1910. It was gliders that Percy Pilcher flew from the grounds of Stamford Hall, Leicestershire during the 1890s. He was killed in a crash there in 1899 but had plans for a powered aircraft which experts believe may well would have enabled him to beat the Wright Brothers in becoming the first to make a fixed-wing powered flight. At Brooklands, attempts were made to build and fly a powered aircraft in 1906, even before the banked race track was completed, but these were unsuccessful. But on 8th June 1809, A. V. Roe made what is considered to be the first powered flight in Britain from there - in reality a short hop - in a machine of his own design and construction. The book also includes the first ever aircraft factory in the railway arches at Battersea, Larkhill on Salisbury Plain which became the British Army's first airfield, and Barking Creek where Frederick Handley Page established his first factory. Plus London's aerodrome and Britain's first military airfield in chapters including 'Married Officers Need Not Apply.' Tiddly up and down these pages with a summary of key locations and events at the front and many quotes from astonished onlookers. 246pp, photos and fact boxes.

Delivering air support for law enforcement, here are brilliant insights into police aviation in GB, the Metropolitan Police Air Support Unit, police helicopter aircrews, equipment and tactics. They cover terrorist attacks, royal weddings and state occasions, US presidential visits, the London Riots of 2011, the Olympic Games of 2012, a transition into MPAS and all about the pilots, crew training and tactical flight officers. Then we take a detailed look at enclosed area searching, vehicle pursuits, ASU liaison role, Eagle One, using infrared and the electromagnetic spectrum. There are case studies and a look at maintenance, recruitment, media and PR. As we expect from Haynes manuals, there are hundreds of colour photographs, maps, many overlayed with diagrammatic lines, and explanations of the Met's EC145 helicopters which take to the skies over London for around 2700 flying hours each year and attend around 7500 operational tasks. Brandon describes the evolution of police aviation plus the Wescam MX15 camera, Skyforce Observer Moving Map, Video Management System, Vislink Digital Downlink, and Airwave Digital Police Radio. With exciting case studies, 200 colour photos and illus., many in print for the first time. 180pp.

This glossy paged, heavily illustrated volume explores and discusses the three biggest developments in London's railway for many years - the East-West Crossrail (Elizabeth) Line, the Thameslink North-South large-scale upgrade, and what may become Crossrail 2. All are aimed at providing extra capacity and relieving many railway routes of severe congestion problems. In the 1930s, the Government kick-started an investment programme that was cut short by World War Two and this book explores the severe consequences this had for the network. In reality, apart from some electrification works, the financial realities of post-war Britain meant that very little happened at all. The Victoria Line, identified as a prime requirement in 1949, opened over 20 years later. Now with the sleek long modern carriages and extra-long platforms on the Elizabeth Line, the book is a timely examination of the fascinating and often troubled history of attempts to improve railway connectivity in the metropolis. The New Works Programme of 1935 to 1940 was never completed and was succeeded by the ambitious County of London Plan of 1943 and its derivatives. These would have expanded the main-line railway network across the capital. Numerous reports had only limited success but resulted in some main-line electrification, and later the creation and extension of the Jubilee Line. Restoration of the Farringdon to Blackfriars link branded as Thameslink went ahead and the original Crossrail Bill, although defeated in Parliament in 1994, was later replaced by a new scheme. Plans for Crossrail 2 on a North/South-West Axis across London are being pursued actively. The book includes and analysis of the prospects for the mainline railways across London and over 170 photographs, maps and illustrations. 28.7 x 22cm.