This book mainly captures black-and-white images of locomotive-hauled passenger and freight trains and multiple diesel units that were familiar to the people in north-west England between 1975 and 1985.

In his introduction, the author affirms his interest in transport photography but then states that he had taken only one of the book’s images.

Many of them are the work of one individual and are reproduced from images the author bought on eBay.

None of the images in the book are credited with the photographer’s name, and many lack basic details about their locations, the type and destinations of trains, or when they were taken.

Published in November 2021 by Amberley Publishing and written by John Carlson, this soft-cover book measures around 16.5 cm x 23.4 cm, and has 96 pages and 180 photographs.

It has a published price of £15.99, but at the time of writing, it can be purchased for £14.39 from Amberley Publishing and for £12.39 from Amazon.

Although nominally illustrating typical scenes from railways around northwest England, the author has included many scenes from locations in the Midlands and even Reading in the Home Counties.

The book’s title also infers that it is about railways, but there are many photos of trams at the National Tramway Museum in Derbyshire, which is in the Midlands, as well as in Blackpool and Manchester.

In too many photographs, the photographer has overdone the use of a telephoto lens to produce a very unnatural image, as in the pages below, often with little thought to what the captions actually say.

At the top right, the author says the image shows 40181 with two brake vans, but from the image, it could be 40181 with an express passenger train.

Similarly, with the photo at the bottom right, where we are told it is 87021 with the up Royal Scot, the use of a telephoto lens produces a photograph of just the locomotive, which in the printed image has also lost its pantograph.

With more thought given to their captions, the images below would be a superb addition to the book.

However, the top left image would need a vivid imagination to know that the almost-hidden 85038 was hauling an Up-bound ICI train, or where “Up-bound” refers to, and what sort of cargo was destined for ICI.

The rest of the caption says it is from 25093 with an up-bound freight, but in reality, it depicts two wooden five-plank wagons.

It would be difficult to compile a briefer caption than that for the top-left photo below. The terse “Preston station” says nothing about the image, which platforms are shown, whether the view is to the north or south, or when the image was taken.

A lack of geographical knowledge of Britain is shown in the photos on the right-hand page below that show trains at Reading, which is in the Home Counties rather than the North West of the book’s title.

The caption to the lower photo states it is of locomotives 253018 and 43037, whereas 253018 is the set number rather than the locomotive, of which 43037 is one of the power cars.

The book has many failings, none more so than shown in the pages below. These are two of just eight pages that carry page numbers, mainly because photographs on the other pages extend to the top edge of the page.

However, every page in the book has plenty of white space at the bottom where page numbers could have been included.

These pages also illustrate trams at Blackpool, which are not to be expected in a book about railways. They also highlight the poor proofreading that went into the book’s production, with these, and other pages, being headed ‘Essex Buses’.

Also, the top right image clearly shows Blackpool, but the caption suggests that it is of Manchester with the byline that it ‘also ran at Blackpool’.

The title of this book will attract many prospective purchasers, with the 1970s and 1980s being a time when there were many more different types of locomotive and diesel multiple units to be seen than there are today, especially in northwest England.

However, they will not be expecting to see photographs of trains in the Midlands or at Reading, nor of trams.

Purchasers will also be let down by the captions, many of them too brief, incorrect, or undated.

There is also a clear lack of proofreading, such as a Class 08 being referred to as a Class 08. The author has also erred by not crediting the photographs, even for those where he is aware of the photographer.

Although the photographs are of fair quality, too many show excessive use of a telephoto lens. The book may be of interest to anyone with memories of the Northwest in the 1970s and 1980s, but otherwise, there is nothing to distinguish it from many other similar books of the area, and as such, it can only merit a rating of 3.5/5.

The book is available to purchase from Amazon and from Amberley Publishing.

We would like to thank Amberley Publishing for providing us with a copy of the book for review.