Full Size The Brendon Hills Iron Mines and the West Somerset Mineral Railway - opinions?

[Chris Veitch]

I see that Lightmoor are advertising a January 2024 reissue of their Brendon Hills and West Somerset Book. West country mineral lines are a sometime interest of mine, so I've been mightily tempted based on the couple of sample images showing very modellable and Riceian 19th Century industrial railways, but although from the description it certainly seems to be a well-researched and comprehensive book it's not clear how much covers mining and local history, and how much is detailed railway history. Is there anyone here who owns the earlier printing and can provide an idea of its content and how much of it is likely to excite a student of antiquated industrials?

P.S. I notice that the book is advertised as "The Brendon Hills Iron Mines and the West Somerset Railway" whereas the cover images show it as "The Brendon Hills Iron Mines and the West Somerset Mineral Railway", which seems an odd oversight from a specialist publisher since the WSR and WSMR are rather different things...

 

[tanatvalley]

Alan

 

[Overseer]

I bought this when it was released, for £24.99. If you are modelling the line it is a very good resource. It is an archaeological record of the line and buildings. Locomotives and rolling stock are also covered but the drawings are not as useful as they could have been - they look well drawn but are not based on measurements or historic drawings, just photographs, so are somebodies interpretation of what they see in the photos. I don't think this is made clear in the book.

It is a large book and the new price probably reflects the cost of producing it. To my eye the book is over designed with a lot of unnecessary colour fill and graphics. It was worth the original subsidised price but may not be worth the new price if you are only interested in antiquated industrials. I have noticed that much of it has also been available online for quite a few years on local history group's websites. The little paperback by RJ Sellick, The Old Mineral Line, contains many of the historic photographs and will be substantially cheaper.

 

[Rob R]

Just google "The West Somerset Mineral Line Association".

 

[David Mylchreest]

There is also this which is very good

 

[Bonky]

You may also be interested in this:

WSR

 

[Martin Shaw]

Overseer raises an rather interesting general point about book production and Lightmoor press specifically. I bought a copy of the slip cased double volume on the S&DJR earlier this year and I would suggest that it isn't the best thing ever done by Lightmoor. A similar over produced design with some rather poor layout and frankly terrible signalling diagrams. Apart from the previously unpublished photos there is little that is unknown and in truth the book by Judge and Potts from 1979 does as well.

I think the issue is that there aren't many areas of railway interest in the UK that haven't been explored in print and any new production has to focus on an increasingly diverse minutiae to justify the effort. I would suggests Lightmoors recent publications "The Hendre Tramway" and "Railways etc of Bleanau Festiniog" are in this territory. Unless you have a direct interest in the subject, and no doubt some folk have, then they are so limited as to make them of minimal interest to a more general enthusiast market. I decided against both of them for that reason whilst contrarily finding the book on Walkers of Sudbrook worth buying.

I have had a rather direct conversation with another publisher about publishing standards and quality in book production, their argument being that the market is in decline, enthusiasts with enough spare cash for this type of publication are limited and the cost has to be limited to sell. My argument is that in a declining market you to to increase perceived value because the purchaser wants a better return. I can see both sides of the argument but I'm in the happy position of being able to choose and therefore reject books that don't meet my standards. I had a look in the summer at a second hand copy of the first edition of the Brendon Hills book which was offered to me at far less than £50, I decided it was too specific and passed on it. Obviously Lightmoor have had sufficient interest to justify a 2nd edition and other things they do such as "BR the first 25 years" series are really well done, strange how there is such variation.
Regards
Martin

 

[oldravendale]

That's an interesting observation and slightly worrying from my perspective - I've just added the Tralee and Dingle Railway by Michael Whitehouse and published by Lightmoor to my list. It's a long time interest of mine but the book is no snip at a publishers price of £60. I don't mind that if it's worth the money but I guess I'll not find that out until/if I get it.

Brian

 

[Martin Shaw]

Brian
The Tralee & Dingle is excellent, have no fears.
M

 

[oldravendale]

Brian
The Tralee & Dingle is excellent, have no fears.
M

Thank you Martin. I'm much comforted!

 

[Tim V]

But top marks go to Lightmoor when they released the supplement to their Volume 1 'West Gloucester & Wye Valley Lines', which I bought. I wouldn't have purchased the revised volume.

Unlike a certain other association, which produced a new book to replace their earlier book - instead of producing a supplement. I haven't bought that one.

 

[Chris Veitch]

Many thanks for all your replies, which I think give me a good idea of what's there. A difficult decision - it doesn't sound particularly railway-centric but the archeology is nevertheless interesting, a bit like the Brecon Forest Tramroad book which had only a marginal railway interest for me, but was very well presented and researched.

 

[Osgood]

Although many of the railway-oriented images within this book can be seen in the previous publications on the WSMR, what this one does with its very neat 'archeology-grade' plans and drawings is give you more of a feel for the context of the railway within the environment, albeit with a degree of conjectural detail of buildings, track layout at stations etc.

It is certainly nowhere near as archaeology-intense as the Brecon Forest book.

 

[Chris Veitch]

Overseer raises an rather interesting general point about book production and Lightmoor press specifically. I bought a copy of the slip cased double volume on the S&DJR earlier this year and I would suggest that it isn't the best thing ever done by Lightmoor. A similar over produced design with some rather poor layout and frankly terrible signalling diagrams. Apart from the previously unpublished photos there is little that is unknown and in truth the book by Judge and Potts from 1979 does as well.

I'm still working through the S&DJR double volume and I'm probably somewhat immune to its failings as I have little else on the S&D. I'm not sure about the issues with the signalling diagrams but I have to say that the general design and the typefaces in particular aren't very appealing and don't seem to have been given a great deal of consideration.

 

[Chris Veitch]

Brian
The Tralee & Dingle is excellent, have no fears.
M

On the subject of Lightmoor NG titles, I've recently bought the 2020 Irish Narrow Gauge Album by Michael Whitehouse and I'm very impressed with it. It's not particularly original in content - many of the images have been seen previously and most of the chapters are reprints from either contemporary magazines or other books - but it's still a very well designed and produced volume and an enjoyable read. It does however have quite a few photos I've not seen previously, including some excellent examples from the 1920s by A.W.Croughton (whose collection was acquired by Pat Whitehouse). These are universally well composed and very sharp views of some interesting and obscure subjects which are very well reproduced - I was particularly taken with a full page view of the Schull & Skibbereen's last surviving tram loco in 1924. The captions are mostly comprehensive and informative.

Incidentally does anyone have a considered opinion on another recent Lightmoor title The Railway Over the Stainmore Pass? I've long been curious about this route as I drive some of its remains fairly regularly (i.e. the A66) however I can't recall seeing a history of it. I'm rather put off by the somewhat limiting subtitle "Post-War Boom and Bust on the North Trans Pennine" and the publisher's description doesn't give much detail on what you get, so I'd be interested to know what WTers think of it.

 

[Gadgie]

Incidentally does anyone have a considered opinion on another recent Lightmoor title The Railway Over the Stainmore Pass? I've long been curious about this route as I drive some of its remains fairly regularly (i.e. the A66) however I can't recall seeing a history of it. I'm rather put off by the somewhat limiting subtitle "Post-War Boom and Bust on the North Trans Pennine" and the publisher's description doesn't give much detail on what you get, so I'd be interested to know what WTers think of it.

I haven’t seen the book, but if you are curious about the Stainmore route then there is quite a bit of background on the disused stations website — the link points to the page about Barnard Castle, information on the other stations are linked from it. There are also loads of images on Ernie Brack’s Flickr pages. Beware though, both of these resources are rather deep rabbit holes … but tons of inspiration.

The gradients on the line resulted in a lot of interesting operation too, with bankers being used to shove unfitted freights from behind on the way up to Stainmore Summit, and then transferring to the front of the train to provide extra braking power for the descent. The shunt at the summit was nicely captured on Richard Nice’s EM gauge layout (see MRJ175), which I had the pleasure of operating at a couple of shows.

Richard
—

 

[Martin Shaw]

Like Chris I am also interested in the Stainmore book, I'm rather sorry that the graphic design of the cover is offputting. The British Railways totem is of course emblematic of the era but when over done, as I feel it is here, then it just looks crude. In my opinion there has been one or two design issues with recent Lightmoor publications which I sincerely hope doesn't pressage a decline in standards, there are few enough quality transport book publishers left.

Ernie Brack’s Flickr pages. Beware of this site, not for bad reasons just you'll be gone for days.

Martin

 

[Dog Star]

In my opinion there has been one or two design issues with recent Lightmoor publications which I sincerely hope doesn't pressage a decline in standards, there are few enough quality transport book publishers left.

Martin, what feedback do you provide to Ian? He is likely to be aware of your concerns because he is a member of WT.

rgds, G

 

[richard carr]

Like Chris I am also interested in the Stainmore book, I'm rather sorry that the graphic design of the cover is offputting. The British Railways totem is of course emblematic of the era but when over done, as I feel it is here, then it just looks crude. In my opinion there has been one or two design issues with recent Lightmoor publications which I sincerely hope doesn't pressage a decline in standards, there are few enough quality transport book publishers left.

Ernie Brack’s Flickr pages. Beware of this site, not for bad reasons just you'll be gone for days.

Martin

Oh dear I see what you mean Martin, I could spend hours here.

The best book I have come across on the Stainmore route is "the Stainmore and Eden Valley Railway" by Peter Walton

It's excellent, but is long out of print but seems to be available for about $50 second hand.

Richard

 

[Martin Shaw]

Graham
I did raise with him the size of the Much Wenlock book which in going for a nearer square size meant that it sticks out beyond the front of the shelf. I raised this when the book was announced and was told that this was down to the authors wishes and couldn't be changed. So be it. Of the in excess of a 1000 books I have in my library, that volume, the Poster to Poster series, three Roy Link books and Transport Treasury's recent large publications are the only recent books that aren't basically A4 or smaller in size.

It's very difficult to give feedback or criticism on a book you have yet to see and when you can it's too late to change anything, nor in all honesty as a customer do I feel any obligation to provide anything. If I were to be asked as part of the production cycle to comment on any aspect of the book then I would happily do so but I haven't been asked.

We should also keep this in context, I have raised two matters publicly here, the signalling diagrams in the S&DJR book and the front cover of of the Stainmore book. These are personal opinions and probably many folk would find these perfectly acceptable. I find the vast majority of Lightmoors output of the highest quality and as it stands there are five forthcoming books I am looking forward to publication. Equally I have little interest in the Hendre Tramway or Slate Quarries of Blaenau Ffestiniog so I haven't bought either of these.

The only other matter I raised some years ago was the lack of dust wrappers. The spines especially will inevitably fade so detracting from the book. I have Wild Swan books older than Lightmoor Press that beneath the fading jacket are in mint condition, I probably won't be here in 30 years time but I doubt the Lightmoor books will be in as good condition as today. I was told at the time that from a publishers perspective dust wrappers are a nuisance and they really wanted nothing to do with them. Whilst I disagree, it is their choice, and of the 66 volumes by Lightmoor on my shelf, four have dust wrappers and are the ones that will survive in the best condition for the longest.

So yes I have on occasion given feedback and more recently to another publisher, however at the end of the day I just want to buy well produced books which I am more than happy to say Lightmoors pretty nearly always are.

Regards
Martin