I share a love of heritage railways with my husband, so was delighted to receive this book as an ARC. It was fascinating to read about lines that are well-known and loved by us and those not discovered or visited as yet.

The book is helpfully divided into sections for English regions, with separate sections for Wales and Scotland. Each railway has detailed information that includes a history of the original lines/branches operating in the area and the efforts made to preserve and reintroduce some, if not all, of the former lines to be enjoyed by visitors old and young.

There is a heritage railway near where I live and it is lovingly preserved by a collection of enthusiastic and knowledgeable volunteers. Judging by this book, there is a veritable army of such people up and down the British Isles, determined to retain glimpses of a bygone era and maintain links with our industrial past.

Of the various railways in this book, I can thoroughly recommend many of the Welsh railways (Ffestiniog, Welsh Highland, Talyllyn, Vale of Rheidol, Snowdon), as well as the Bodmin line in Cornwall. My husband has been on many more.

This is a wonderful book, and one to be left on a coffee table for browsing at leisure. I shall be buying a copy and planning some long-overdue visits!

I received an ARC of this book from Collins Reference, in return for an honest appraisal.

I expected a more-than reasonable book from this author, and this, while involving more organising than original text, perhaps, is no blot on his copybook. The hundred best and most interesting railway restoration projects, heritage lines and locomotive museum yards are (almost) all given two pages. The standard entry is their location, public openings, length, a tiny schematic of the stations used, a photo from days of yore (generally pre-Beeching), and a more modern image, with just enough text in the space left over. This details what the line covered originally, who ran it, when it closed, who runs it now and what stock the spotter might find there. Heritage railways kind of fell into being a minor interest of mine (I've ridden on six of these, either as a passenger or in a professional capacity), but even I can see the value of this concise, fluff-free gazetteer. Some people will learn little from it, many will have a wonderful check-list to start attacking. The TWERPS are in this; the twerps leave it on the shelf, unbought. Only bespoke mapping to allow us to follow the core of the histories would improve things, and is in fact sorely lacking. As are Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man.

I'm fascinated by trains and historical railways. This is an excellent guide with a lot of information and lovely picture.
Informative and useful.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine