Written by Michael A. Vanns and published by Pen & Sword in September 2019, this hardback book measures around 22.35 cm x 28.7 cm, is 152 pages long, and has 200 illustrations. It has a published price of £25.00, but at the time of writing Pen & Sword are offering it for £18.75 and it can be purchased from Amazon for £11.50.
With a sub-title of A Pictorial Journey Through Time, Great Northern Railway Gallery is a remarkable book that treats us to a world far removed from the 21st century. It tells the story of the Great Northern Railway from its inception in 1846 until its absorption into the LNER in 1923.
Photography at that time was the preserve of plate cameras, which more often than not produced super-sharp images. My only criticism of the book is that many of the images have a washed-out appearance, which with a little effort in a programme such as Photoshop could have been corrected.
The word ‘Pictorial' in the book's sub-title could have been omitted as the narrative is superb, and presents the company's history in a well-presented chronological order.
Horses being used for shunting goods wagons persisted in a few places well into the 1950s, but their use for shunting passenger carriages as in the photo below ceased many years before. The way the staff in the photo seem to be posing would indicate that it dates from sometime in the 1800s. The track layout and level crossing on the right-hand page would provide a challenge to a railway modeller.
Whilst the majority of photos in the book provide us with views of employees and trains of the Great Northern Railway in wider operational settings, the photos below are of equal historical interest, especially the one at lower-left which was taken in the 1860s and shows the Great Northern's first locomotive. What is remarkable about these photos is their clarity, such as the photo at top-right that was taken less than 20 years after Henry Fox Talbot invented photography.
Many of the illustrations are full of human interest with high visibility vests conspicuous by their absence. Except for the presence of the train in the lower-left photo, there is nothing in these photos that would have changed long after the Great Northern ceased to exist.
In their own way, these photos are full of history. The large number of telegraph wires in the top-left photo seem so different to today's fibre-optic networks. At the lower-left the gentleman wearing a top hat would indicate that he was at least an inspector of some sort.
Three of these photos were taken during the First World War, but it seems there weren't the same restrictions on railway photography then as there was during the Second World War.
In summary, with an increasing interest in the pre-Grouping scene, this book gives an impressive history of the Great Northern Railway in a very readable style and with a splendid collection of period images displaying numerous aspects of the railway's operations. It deserves a place on the bookshelf of anyone remotely interested in the history of Britain's or the London and North Eastern Railway. The excellent narrative is complemented by a more than interesting collection of images. Highly recommended.
The book is available to purchase from Amazon and from Pen & Sword.
We would like to thank Pen & Sword for providing RailAdvent with a copy of the book for review.
