£8.00
Author: David Gowan & Vernon Parry (Signed Edition)
Published: 2023
Edition: Paperback
Pages: 44
Condition: New
Genre: Great Western Railway (GWR)
Status: In Stock
Synopsis
Quiet between Trains: Lampeter, the Teifi Valley and the Aberayron Branch in the Final Years of Steam 1963-65 by David Gowan and Vernon Parry.
Vernon Parry first photographed the railways around Lampeter in August 1963, when passenger and goods trains were still operating as they had done since Great Western days. In later visits he travelled on the footplate of locomotives, and took pictures at small stations and in the countryside in the Teifi Valley and on the Aberayron branch. In early April 1965, he photographed and travelled on the final train to leave Aberayron and the last steam working to the milk depot at Pont Llanio (near Tregaron). The pictures show railwaymen and passengers, and depict the role that the railways played in rural Cardiganshire and Carmarthenshire. Vernon Parry had an intuitive ability to capture an aspect of life that was about to disappear.
Includes 64 photographs and maps.
Chapters
Introduction
Railway Clearing House Map
A Journey up the Line 1963
Aberayron Branch 1964
On the Main Line 1964
The Last Week of Steam 1965
Review
Quiet between Trains is a eulogy to a lost time and former Great Western railway that traversed the rural splendour of Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire. These previously unpublished monochrome photographs are crisply reproduced and perfectly capture a way of life that was about to disappear. The publishers have done a splendid job in producing this slim volume. Perhaps inevitably given the high quality of the photographs there may be those who might have preferred a larger format. However the publishers’ decision to keep the price as low as possible to maximise distribution is to be commended.
Apart from its historical value, Quiet between Trains is quite possibly the most charming railway book of the year and is highly recommended.
All profits generated by the author will be donated to Lampeter Museum.