PUBLISHER Stenlake Publishing 54-58 Mill Square, Catrine, Ayrshire, KA5 6RD, Scotland

AUTHOR/EDITOR * Author - Stephen Johnson 

DETAILS

Published	2008
ISBN	9781840334289
Published Price	Stg£7.99
Type	Book

Continuing the series, Stephen Johnson has produced a book looking at the railways of the South West of Ireland. The quality of the photographs in this book are very good - both technically and artistically. In addition, there is a very healthy representation of built heritage therein. Each of the lines featured has a brief history of the line included and any location for which a photograph is published also gets a brief history. The front cover shows the station at Dingle Pier - at one point the most westerly railhead in Europe (just edging out Valentia Harbour to that honour) and Page 2 shows a train under the canopy at Foynes. Another interesting photo is that of a train at Patrickswell. Like cars, trains run on the left in a double track environment. In the photo of Patrickswell, the train is on the right track - this is because Patrickswell on the line to Foynes was the junction for a line to Charleville. There was no crossover at the Foynes end of the station so trains had to enter either the left track for Charleville or the right track for Foynes. One point that I would take the author to task over was his description of a baronial guarantee as "similar to a county council loan". A baronial guarantee was just that - a guarantee. Investors bought baronially guaranteed stock like any other share (initial share issues were made by the company and subsequently traded on the stock market) and the guarantee kicked in to guarantee a minimum return on the stock. 

Return to Railway Book Reviews

COPYRIGHT EWAN DUFFY 2015 - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. COPYRIGHT SUBSISTS IN THIS REVIEW. YOU MAY NOT SAVE A COPY OF THIS AND/OR REPRODUCE THIS IN ANY PUBLICATION AND/OR ON ANY WEBSITE WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT OF EWAN DUFFY. STANDARD CHARGE FOR REPRODUCTION IS EUR100,000.00