I normally don't look at books on random narrow topics that I'm not particularly familiar with, and you honestly can't get more narrow than a collection of a photographer's trainspotting pictures from the first half of last century, but this looked interesting so I decided to give it a whirl. The book is comprised of the photographs by the popular railroad photographer Reg Batten, as collected and organized by his son Malcolm Batten, who himself is a noted author on transportation history in the UK. Mostly, what interested me in this book was the story behind the preservation of one man's obsession for decades - chronicling the end of the steam era in modern Britain for upwards of fifty years. I honestly know almost nothing about this topic, but I know good historical photographs when I see them, and these are amazing. Seeing the hundreds of different train models and configurations makes one realize that we take small things like the history of transportation for granted, or as some kind of monolithic industry when it's not.

Overall, I was glad I read this despite not really having too much of an interest in this or any real way to pursue it any further due to living VERY far away from any of the locales and museums mentioned. We have train museums here, and I have been to a few of them, but rarely do you see preserved steam locomotives or intact old train stations in the area that I live in. It's still an interesting story, and I feel like any person with a passion for a topic would strive to be honored in such a way by their family. To him, taking all those photographs was a way to make money or to form a personal collection, but now they can live on forever and be shared with the world.

A very nostalgic read. Brought back memories of my childhood, trainspotting on Southern Region railways in the 60's at the tail end of steam. Nice to occasionally reminisce.

When I started reviewing ARC online, I decided I would read both the genres I was already interested in and find something new. Check what the editorial world had to offer, try this and that for size, divebomb in uncharted territory and see what would happen.

Steam in my Lens, by M. Batten, is a perfect Uncharted Territory example. While photography is my lifeblood, I know precious little about trains. It never occurred to me that someone would dedicate a good portion of their life chasing locomotives and taking their pictures. In hindsight, I’m not sure how I managed to overlook something so obvious.

Mr. Batten, Sir? Thank you for showing me the beauty of old trains and teaching me new things! I was sad to hear of your passing, but also happy to see how your life’s work had been preserved.

Cover: Majestic. Have a look.

Yay!

- SIML is a recount of Reginald’s life, sometimes told in first person and sometimes narrated with the help of his son, Malcolm. An avid photographer, Reginald traveled through the countryside and documented both life and trains. While I didn’t have the privilege to see his country shots (aw!), his railway ones are very nice.

- The black and white photo collection is astounding. To the untrained eye, all those locomotives (or loco, as mentioned in the book) look alike; at first I was all ‘uh?’ myself, no lie. Then I started hunting for details, comparing a Grand Parade with a Claude Hamilton, say, and the differences unfurled under my eyes. Try that out, too: it’s not immediate, but it’s there. And that’s where beauty lies. (‘A poet, too!’ – semicit.)

- Interspersed among the pictures, there are anecdotes and reminiscences straight from Reginald’s lips. Someone called them ‘microhistory’, which is spot on. It’s interesting to hear what war was like to him, his memories – from getting pickpocketed on his way home to climbing a dung heap just to take a picture of a church. All this makes SIML even more real, so to speak.

- Sometimes the book gets a little technical, but not overly so. I followed along without issues and learned a bunch. I also had a little private laugh at some point. You see, my kid loved Thomas the Tank Engine when he was little, and a couple pictures, a particular shot? I could superimpose the image of Thomas or one of the other characters on them.

- Good prose, it flows and it doesn’t get boring.

Special mention:

- Silver Jubilee. So elegant.
- Sea Eagle. This is my go-to standard image: someone says, ‘steam engine!’ and I picture the Sea Eagle.
- A passenger train crossing a viaduct. I love landscapes!
- BR 2-6-4T passing a signal box. It’s a colored picture, bright and cheery.

Nay!

- As it often happens with e-books, sometimes it’s hard to match captions and text with the correct photo. Also, some pictures around the end appear stacked. Maybe I would have added a border or a divider.

TL;DR

4 stars on GR. I really enjoyed SIML!

This combines two things I love. Trains and microhistories. This is exactly that - a collection of pictures of locomotives from Great Britain from the late 30s to the 50s or so. It's a personal collection, and by being personal we generally get a context for the pictures and a bit of story around it. Some pictures are special because of that - pictures taken in a special context, and a nice story about a picture taken with two celebrities (I personally didn't hear about them, but I'll take the author's word for it).

The best thing are the pictures - and there's a lot of them. I was reading the book in the Netgalley PDF reading application, and the images are a bit blurry. Some pictures are a bit blurry „by design”, but I would expect that. The materials are fascinating, and there are a few interesting stories attached, including the making of blueprints in the late 30s.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Pen & Sword who offered an ARC of this book for an honest review.

This is a great way to pay tribute to a well known train-spotter/photographer. A well known name amongst those with a similar interest.
The book was well laid out with so many wonderful pictures of steam locomotives from bygone era with accompanying information about what you see. In each chapter, the author shared his experiences at the time, recounting details of the environment of the days, what he saw, how he reacted and how he felt. The author also explained the choices of cameras and film that were available at the time. How different photography was compared to now.
My husband, Andrew, has is a train enthusiast and found this book very interesting. He recommends anyone with a similar interest should check this book out. We reviewed an ebook version which was enjoyable but a hardcopy would be even better!

Thank you to Pen & Sword and Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book.

If you are a keen train spotter then you will love this book of photographs of steam engines with accompanying descriptions. The book also shares the details of the photographer, Reg Batten his background & life, his hobbies, his cameras, his friends and his joy. Thank you #NetGalley for the copy.

Manna from heaven to the right reader, this book will only act as a superlative tribute to the man whose photographs and words make up its core. With so many welcoming cliques in railway fandom, the Gresley Society and others will be aware of this gent, whose interest in photography and taking pictures of trains and other modes of transport spanned nine decades.

I'm not generally in the market for such a volume, but volunteered to take a look on the chance it had content concerning some of the old lines I've had experience of. And while I wouldn't know a 4-6-0 from a rebuilt doodad from a prototype Huffing Jenny, unless I really thought about the caption's data, what I do know is that to some people all the terms trickle off the tongue with ease. And they do so here, proving this would be able to fit on any enthusiast's shelves. The draw for me, I think, would be the personable fragments of memoir, with the author really warmly conveying the ins and outs of being an early young spotter. One signalman gave our man company, heads-up information, and even a florin for his tea ("...a couple of our celebrated Palethorpes' sausage rolls..."), when a coronation had the temerity to spoil his plans. He was modestly taking snaps of one unusual engine when a noted celebrity of the day asked for a print in the post.

This is a niche volume, and as such I'm an unqualified voice. So does it matter that I found a lot of the photos to be very samey, very much favouring a hand-held trackside height, with any kind of elevation very much lacking? (You'll only laugh if you consider this and find a toy train here, once of Margate's Dreamland, viewed from the same perspective.) What I hope matters is the recommendation from this observer, who in ignorance cannot see how this book would fail to delight its intended audience.