Changing Tracks: The Photographs of a Midlands Railwayman
Roger Shenton combined his work with his passion for photography and the best of his many pictures form the basis of this, his first book. His travels took him right across the Midlands from the former LNER main line in the east to the ex-GWR lines in the west. Occasional forays took him up to Scotland, onto the Somerset & Dorset and into the territory of the Southern and Western Regions.
As well as recording change on the main lines, the author was aware of the role played by railways in industry and mining, and his photographs record some of these long-closed, half-forgotten systems which once played an important part in the nation's economy.
The book is rounded off by some recent views taken at some of his favourite locations in the days of steam. Changing Tracks records how the very essence of the railway changed in the decades after nationalisation. Sometimes these changes were dramatic, like the end of steam, or the electrification of an important route, such as the West Coast main line. Others are almost imperceptible, like renewal of the infrastructure, or the mechanisation of track maintenance. Also traffic flows are lost and new ones gained, and while some lines and stations close, others are opened or revived.
The passing of the Railways Act in 1994 has signalled the beginning of the process that may lead to privatisation of the railways. Whether this is the beginning of a new age of prosperity and investment for the railway or a move to mass closures and the replacement of a great co-ordinated national asset is uncertain; time alone will tell. Whichever way it goes, there will certainly be changes, and this is what keeps the subject so interesting, and indeed it was this very process of change over five decades, which moved Roger Shenton to take the photographs which form the basis of this excellent personal photographic memoir.
Hardback with dust jacket, 176 pages, black & white photographs
Condition: Good/Very Good with a little sunfading to spine of DJ
ISBN: 9781857800043
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