Learn how to build a shelf layout by exploring the possibilities, practicalities, and challenges of linear layout design in a variety of layouts with construction details.
Softcover; 8.25 x 10.75; 80 pages;

£ 14.50 (Incl. UK p&p)

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New Books From

The pictorial saga of Penn Central is illustrated in almost 250 color photos along the Eastern Seaboard.

£ 42.00 (Incl. UK p&p)

CONTENTS:

Chapter 1 Diamond & Caldor: El Dorado Narrow Gauge Chapter 2 Build A Generic Pile Driver Chapter 3 Eneret Peat Products Chapter 4 A Lombard Rail Truck
Chapter 5 West Side Lumber Company Rolling Stock Chapter 6-7 Through 10 Ton Shay Locomotives

PLANS:
A Generic Pile Driver
7 Ton Contractor's Shay
10 Ton Contractor's Shay

OUR COVER:
Diamond & Caldor Shay Number 10 unloads logs at the Diamond Springs sawmill. (Jan Rons painting from the Mallory Hope Ferrell collection)

New Book From Withers

Unit-by-unit listing
150-plus photos including rebuilt slugs, GP40-2s, ES44ACs, and new GenSet units

From official NS records
Handy 6" x 9" size to carry in the field
152 pages, soft cover

£ 20.00 (Incl. UK p&p)

Many of you, I am sure will have wondered what Ann (Mum) has been up to since she retired from SPV. Besides becoming re-married almost a year ago, she has not left the railway world behind since she has now made a railway DVD, with a little help and encouragement from her new husband, Bob. It is entitled “THE CANTERBURY & WHITSTABLE RAILWAY” and tells the intriguing story of the planning, building and operation of a pioneering six mile long, standard gauge line running from England’s premier Cathedral City to the “Native” oyster beds of Whitstable, on the north Kent coast. What makes this railway so remarkable is that it was conceived and built before almost any other passenger railway in the world and well known railway pioneers such as George and Robert Stephenson, Isambard Kingdom Brunnel, Thomas Telford were involved.
Originally independent, the railway, with “INVICTA” as it’s only steam locomotive, soon ran into financial trouble and was rescued in 1846 by “The South East Railway”, and then in 1899 it was brought into the strange working arrangement of the “South Eastern & Chatham & Dover Joint Management Committee” where it enjoyed it’s heyday. By 1923 it was absorbed into “Southern Railways” and a quarter of a century later it was part of “BRITISH RAIL SOUTHERN REGION” The railway provided sterling service to a small part of north Kent for 123 years from 1830 to its untimely demise in 1953. It was a truly pioneering railway in so many ways such as providing the first regular steam powered passenger service in the country using the first brick built tunnel (678 yards long) and the first brick built bridges. The first season tickets were issued by the C&W as well as the first combined railway and steam packet tickets by water to London. Other “firsts”, too numerous to mention, are included in the DVD. This railway was new, exciting, pioneering and effective in bringing change to life in East Kent. Within the next thirty years, railways would transform social life in Britain forever. This was in no small measure due this railway and those few Steam Powered Visionaries of the early 19th century.

My mother has done her usual thorough job in sourcing rare footage, more than fifty years old, showing the railway operating at Whitstable Harbour in the early 1950’s, it’s “last run” in November 1952 and subsequent re-opening in February 1953 to bring flood relief to the stricken town of Whitstable following the disastrous “East Coast Floods”. As a bonus there is rare archive footage of the inaugural run of the “Thanet Belle” Pullman service from Victoria Station to Ramsgate, which at Whitstable passed under the Canterbury & Whitstable line.

Cameras were not invented when the railway opened in 1830, but these very early years are brought to life by untold drawings, maps and diagrams, including several of “INVICTA”, the first locomotive on the line and now on display in Canterbury Museum. Animations have been used to illustrate the problems of gradients posed by the terrain and resulted in the construction of the infamous “Tyler Hill Tunnel”. The DVD explains why this tunnel caused the demise of the line in 1952, not because of collapse or through “Beeching” cuts, or its gradient of 1in 43, but due to its small dimension. From 1860 onwards an abundance of photographs are used to illustrate early locomotives and halts, together with stations.

I am really proud to give you an opportunity to buy this DVD, which lasts for about 55 minutes, not only for you to see what my mother has achieved, but also because it has links with my father, Ian, the founder of Steam Powered Video, and his family. My grandfather, Harry Andrews, worked on the “Southern Railway” all his life from 1924. He wrote several books and leaflets about “Southern” engines and also gave talks to railway societies. In 1964 he wrote a fully illustrated book about the Canterbury & Whitstable Railway. This book, with a unique insight into Southern Region matters was never published due to the financial restraints but in sorting papers after my father’s death seven years ago, my mother found the manuscript, photographs, drawings and schedules which she decided to keep. Eighteen months ago it was proposed that the book should be dusted off, brought up to date and published - however it turned into a DVD
My father came from a continuous and long line of railwaymen who worked on the “Southern”, stretching back to Richard Andrews who helped survey the upgrade of the line of the Canterbury & Whitstable Railway in 1846 and later became Manager for locomotive movements at Ashford Works. You may appreciate that this DVD represents part of my heritage and as such is given special treatment in this Newsletter.

I am sure that all railway enthusiasts will be both charmed and intrigued by this production, not only for what it shows, but also to see what Ann and Bob have been doing in the last year or so. I am reliably informed that other Canterbury & Whitstable Railway DVDS, are imminent covering “Then &Now” which brings the history of the line right up to the present time (The old Whitstable Goods Shed is being demolished as I write in April 2009), and there is 35 minute footage, taken in May 1980, of the extensive 150 Years Anniversary Celebrations, parades, exhibitions, etc, etc which took place in both Canterbury and Whitstable. The Archbishop of Canterbury even delivered a sermon in the Cathedral entitled “God and the Iron Horse”, later to be turned into a book! To bring us back to earth Ann and Bob have amassed considerable material about the nine “R” and “RI” class locomotives that ran on the line, the only class from the 1890s to 1953. Footage has been obtained of these locos working at various places as well as at Whitstable and Canterbury. Watch out folks there is more to come!