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PUBLICATIONS

The club publishes a quarterly magazine of news and reports, which is distributed free of charge to members. Additionally, the club's former Chairman - Jeff Vinter - has published a number of books on the subject of walking old railways. These are currently out of print, but second-hand copies can usually be found at a reasonable price by searching for 'Railway Walks' on Amazon. For anyone who wants to get out and actually walk some old railways, the gazetteer listed below is available on a mail order basis from Jeff at 1 Victoria Road, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 7HY. Cheques and postal orders should be made payable to 'Jeff Vinter'. Please allow 7-10 days for delivery.

A bibliography listing just about everything that has been published on old railways (as a a specific subject) appears further down this page. However, this does not include books about individual lines, which generally are histories that give little, if any, coverage of the lines after closure.
 

 
Left: This useful gazetteer lists railway paths that are two miles or more in length and officially open to the public for walking and, in many cases, cycling. Divided into sections covering England, Wales and Scotland, it identifies the start and end points of each walk, together with the overall distance and classes of user to whom it is available (walkers, cyclists and horseriders). Those routes which have been inspected personally carry a further note as to their suitability for wheelchair users, young families with pushchairs, etc. Parents wanting to find traffic-free places where their children can ride bicycles, at home or on holiday, will find plenty of ideas in here! Six figure grid references are given where known. The text includes twelve high quality pen and ink drawings by Sussex artist John Fisher. Updated with details of new paths in April 2000. 38 pages. Price: £2.00 including p&p.
Left: One of John Fisher's pen and ink illustrations from Vinter's Gazetteer: a milepost between Wadebridge and Padstow on the 'withered arm' of the former London & South Western Railway. This part of Cornwall has long been associated with John Betjeman, whose childhood holidays were spent near Wadebridge. 'Can it really be / That this same carriage came from Waterloo?' The trains may have gone, but Betjeman's question still conveys a sense of astonished contrast, like a time traveller alighting into a different world. Nowadays, the Camel Trail between Wadebridge and Padstow is one of the most scenic railway paths in the UK.
   

Bibliography

The club is frequently asked for details of books which describe walking old railways, or the history of railway closures. As far as we are aware, the following bibliography is comprehensive, but we would be pleased to hear of any omissions. ISBN numbers are provided so that visitors to this site can order the books from local libraries, if they wish.

Please note that this list does not include details of books about 'forgotten railways' or individual branch lines, since such titles are not specifically about walking old railways. Besides, if we included such details here, this list would become unwieldy and extremely long.

  • ab Elis, Rhys, Railway Rights of Way (pb, 120pp, b&w illus, plus 3 separate appendices), Branch Line Society, 1985, no ISBN number. An updated edition is in preparation but publication details have not yet been announced (July 2006).
  • Atterbury, Paul, Along Lost Lines (hb, 256pp, illus), David & Charles, 2007, ISBN 9780715325681.
  • Atterbury, Paul, Discovering Britain's Lost Railways (hb, 159pp, b&w and colour illus), AA Publishing, 1995, ISBN 07495104555
  • Burton, Anthony, Walking the Line (hb, 192pp, b&w and colour illus), Blandford Press, 1985, ISBN 0713715545
  • Cockman, F.G., Discovering Lost Railways, Shire Publications, 1973-1980, ISBN 0852634927. (Later editions of this book are available as well.)
  • Daniels, Gerald, and Dench, Les, Passengers No More (hb, 144pp, b&w illus), Ian Allan, 1980, ISBN 0711009511. A gazetteer of railway closures, listed by line and station name. (This book was designed as a companion to Ian Allan's British Railways Pre Grouping Atlas, which depicts Britain's railway network as at 31 December 1922.)
  • Davies, Hunter, A Walk Along the Tracks (pb, 196pp, b&w illus), Dent, 1993, ISBN 0460860992
  • Ellison, M.H., Scottish Railway Walks (pb, 192pp, b&w illus), Cicerone Press, 1989, ISBN 1852840072
  • Hemery, Eric, Walking the Dartmoor Railroads (pb, 144pp, b&w illus), Peninsula Press, 1991, ISBN 1872640125
  • Lewis, Stephen, Boots on the Line - Walking 1000 Miles of Britain's Dismantled Railways (pb, 364pp, illus), True to Line Publications, 2007, ISBN 0955723604
  • Lovett Jones, Gareth, Railway Walks - Exploring Disused Railways, (hb, 288pp, b&w illus), David & Charles, 1983, ISBN 0715385437
  • Searle, Muriel V., Lost Lines, (hb, 208pp, b&w illus), New Cavendish Books, 1982, ISBN 0904568415
  • Somerville, Christopher, Walking Old Railways (hb, 144pp, b&w illus), David & Charles, 1979, ISBN 0715376810
  • Christopher Somerville, Walking West Country Railways (hb, 112pp, b&w illus), David & Charles, 1982, ISBN 0715381431
  • Turnock, David, Railways in the British Isles (hb, 256pp, b&w illus), David St. John Thomas, 1990, ISBN 0946537542
  • Vinter, Jeff, Railway Walks: GWR & SR (pb, 192pp, b&w and colour illus), Alan Sutton Publishing, 1990, ISBN 0862995787
  • Vinter, Jeff, Railway Walks: GWR & SR (hb, 192pp, b&w and colour illus), Alan Sutton Publishing, 1990, ISBN 0862997224
  • Vinter, Jeff, Railway Walks: LNER (pb, 192pp, b&w and colour illus), Alan Sutton Publishing, 1990, ISBN 086299733X
  • Vinter, Jeff, Railway Walks: LNER (hb, 192pp, b&w and colour illus), Alan Sutton Publishing, 1990, ISBN 0862997321
  • Vinter, Jeff, Railway Walks: LMS (pb, 192pp, b&w and colour illus), Alan Sutton Publishing, 1990, ISBN 0862997356
  • Vinter, Jeff, Railway Walks: LMS (hb, 192pp, b&w and colour illus), Alan Sutton Publishing, 1990, ISBN 0862997348
  • Vinter, Jeff, Railway Walks: Wales (pb, 216pp, b&w and colour illus), Sutton Publishing, 1994, ISBN 0750901411
  • Vinter, Jeff, The Taff Trail Official Guidebook (pb, 128pp, colour illus), Sutton Publishing, 1993, ISBN 0750903414

David Turnock’s Railways in the British Isles is the most academic study of old railways, but a great deal of factual and historical information can be gleaned from all of the above titles.

Two major studies of old railways have been commissioned by the government:

  • The Appleton Report in the 1970s
  • The Grimshaw Report in the 1980s

The Appleton Report was disappointing and did little more than state the obvious by listing and categorising what remained on the ground. However, the Grimshaw Report set out detailed proposals for the re-use of many disused lines in a series of 32 separate ‘annexes’. The organisation which produced the Grimshaw Report metamorphosed into Sustrans Ltd., the Bristol-based path-building charity, and many of the proposals in the report's annexes have now been turned into successful railway paths throughout the UK. In fact, some now form part of the National Cycle Network.

If your appetite for books on old railways has still not been satisfied, you could try the 11 titles in the David & Charles' Forgotten Railways series, or the same publisher's 14 volume Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain, although this deals with all lines, whether closed or open. Since the 1980s, a number of 'Then and Now' books have also been published, some of the most popular being by Mac Hawkins, who goes to extraordinary lengths to return to the exact spot where a period photograph was taken, even if it means hiring special equipment to regain the height afforded by a demolished railway structure such as a signal or footbridge. Mac's books The Great Central Then and Now and The Somerset & Dorset Railway Then and Now are particularly recommended.