Signalman's Morning
Adrian Vaughan comes of a railway family and has steam trains in the blood. He spent much of his spare time as a boy hanging around on Reading station watching engines and coaxing drivers to give him 'lifts, but his main fascination was the world of the signalmen, perched high in their commanding positions and responsible entirely for the safe working of the track.
It was only a matter of time before he was working out his apprenticeship as a porter at Challow in Berkshire and finding to his delight that the age of steam had remained more or less unchanged for a hundred years.
In this brilliantly evocative book he captures the personalities of the last days of steam on Brunel's line, and all the mysteries of the system; he has a gift for recorded conversation that brings the long evenings in the signal boxes to life, when news was passed up and down the line and many a story told of days gone by.
Parallel with studying the language and practice of signals he was taking every opportunity of learning to fire and drive, so that when he went down to Bristol to pass his exams and found himself alone at last in charge of Uffington Box it was with a broad understanding of how the railway worked in all its aspects. His story is gripping and leaves you hungry for the second volume, Signalman's Twilight. It is a magnificent blend of humanity, feeling and history.
Hardback with dust jacket, 180 pages, black & white photographs.22x14 cm.
Condition: Book Very Good,
DJ fair, worn with multiple small tears. Yellow aging to inside of DJ
ISBN: 9780719538278
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