There are very few books which describe history through original engineering and architectural drawings. With Britain's long and distinguished history of engineering achievements, from land, sea and in the air, this is a much neglected aspect of the combining of technology and culture; often two inseparable aspects of Britain's past. This book proves that this omission needs to be addressed if only to make accessible rare and unique collections of engineering draughtsmanship and their important and necessary relevance in Britain's development. In summary, this book is likely to be recognised as THE railway book of the year, if not the decade! Not only are the contents excellent and varied, but the design and production complements the book almost perfectly! The author, Christopher Valkoinen, is to be congratulated on an outstanding publication.
The title might be misleading, for it covers not just railways, but many of the subsidiary aspects of designing, building and running a railway, including the necessary infrastructure for the same. The book also covers aspects of railway engineering design and technology often ignored in other studies, such as workers, building railways for other countries and railways at war, and much else besides.
The sub title - A History in Drawings - sums up this book. And it is through the numerous drawings that make this book what it is, supported by an informative text and numerous photographs. The quality of draughtsmanship is exquisite and demonstrates without doubt that current computer-generated drawings will never compare favourably with hand-rendered drawings, many tinted with watercolour washes, making many of these works of art in their own right. Indeed, a close examination of any of these drawings show a skill level that is no longer expected - or indeed taught - in today's boringly dull equivalents. How many modern 'draughtsmen' are able to apply watercolour washes? How many could handle traditional drawing instruments? Sadly, very few, if any!
What is further evident through a vast majority of the drawings reproduced in this book, supported by many of the detail photographs, is the quality of workmanship, be it a steam locomotive, a passenger carriage, a war department hospital carriage for wounded soldiers, or a station master's house. And this quality of workmanship is evident in the smallest of detail. Compare with today's reliance on mass-produced plastic with no regard to quality, and even less regard to pride in one's work, assuming of course that today's joiners, plumbers, et al, have the skills to compete with those prior to 1970. So-called 'modern apprenticeships' are nothing more than a political sham when compared to the in-depth training that was accepted as the norm during much of the period covered by this book. And the starting point for much of this quality of workmanship was through the skill of the draughtsmen.
No book can ever be perfect. One gripe is having double-page spreads where parts of drawings disappear in the gutter. This is not the fault of the author, but of the publisher's designers. One day publisher's might actually listen to this oft cited issue with books of this nature. However, the large landscape format of this book does help alleviate this commonly-found problem. And although this is a valid criticism, it does not invalidate the quality of the contents of this book.
This book comes highly recommended - not just for railway historians, enthusiasts and model makers, but also anyone interested in engineering and technological history. I would even suggest that some art and design students will find much of interest and inspiration in the pages of this book, if they had the lateral inclination to examine in detail some of the drawings in this book!
Hopefully this book will be so successful that it will inspire the National Railway Museum, in York, to publish further studies based on its unique collection of railway drawings (and photographs).
This book deserves ten stars!
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Customer reviews
A wonderful book that visually celebrates the achievements of Britain's railways. One reason I particularly like the book is the editorial format, the seven chapters are divided into themed spreads, 108 in all, though a few run over to another spread. The first 107 pages are devoted to schematic engineering drawing of locomotives from the first non-steam railway, in 1825, the Stockton and Darlington goods wagons pulled by a horse. Robert Stephenson's Rocket from 1829, wasn't really the first steam engine but it completed trials against other engines and then ran on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.Some of the engineering drawings are quite stunning to look at. Obviously full of precise technical detail but also coloured and shaded to show depth. Page thirty-five has a remarkable drawing of a tank engine from 1870 that would make an excellent framed picture. Famous engines like The Flying Scotsman, Coronation Scot, or The Golden Arrow have their profiles revealed but also the ordinary tank engines that were scattered across the country's rail yards. Steam faded out in the late forties and diesels took over, especially English Electric Deltic class, then electrification provided a completely different engine for speed. It seems a huge problem was the railway's tight track corners, Victorian trains rarely exceeded 50mph, hopelessly slow by modern standards so British Rail tried out the APT-E in 1972, to travel at 155mph on tracks designed for 100mph passenger trains. It was not a success and the engines were withdrawn in 1985.The following chapters look at the rail industry, at passenger comfort (or in the early years a lack of it) freight, rail workers, rail during both world wars, railways in other countries, building the railways with aerial schematics of mainline stations and their buildings. The passenger chapter has an intriguing detail. In 1874 the Midland Railway imported some Pullman sleeping cars (pictured on page 129) but they were too wide for the tracks in Scotland so the train had a group of workers to move the tracks. In 1913 the industry suffered 30,000 injuries and 460 deaths and on page 175, in the rail workers chapter, there is a diagram of an artificial leg. London and North Western railway made these in the Crewe works for their injured workers.The book is landscape shaped, with three hundred pictures and a delight to look through and I liked the way it was written in everyday English. Books from the transport press are notorious for heavy use of abbreviations and long paragraphs. Railways: A history in drawings will appeal to engineers and obviously railfans. You can look inside the book at Westread Book Reviews then click 2021 and September.
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