British Rail Traction Maintenance Depots 1974-1993 Part 2: Central & Southern England

This was what I expected I would love someone to be able to do an even more in depth version but this lived up to and exceeded my expectations

i love the books on british railways maintance depots especially with stratford depot which has now been gone

This is my second attempt at a review of this book as my first was rejected and the reasons why were not really made clear. Also, a link to my text sent by Amazon did not work and I could not amend it on Amazon as you used to be able to. As a reviewer who has been invited to become a Vine Voice I was very nonplussed as to why it was rejected (I declined the invitation only because I am far too busy at work to commit to reviewing things and did not want to let anyone down). I bought this book for one simple reason: the colour photo on Page 2. A photo through a telephoto lens of Toton MPD where you can make out an adult with two children in tow about to walk around the depot. I bought this book from Amazon for my brother, and when he saw that photo he cried as it took us back as children to when our father - now deceased - took us around Toton for the first time just like the two kids in that photo. Wonderful! It brought back our excitement at walking around all these huge locomotives for the first time and the time spent with our Dad. As for the rest of the book, photographic reproduction is superb as you would expect from Platform 5. Dr Rhodes does not visit every depot in the region, but he is a superb photographer and the captions are generous and informative and on that basis I would say 'Buy it!' So, what was my gripe in my first disallowed review then? The author's introduction uses a very politically loaded word/concept which I happened to disagree with and has no place in railway literature IMHO. The author felt that this word/concept had inhibited access to motive power depots these days. All I wished to point out in my review was that I think the author is wrong to use this word/concept. After Amazon refused my first review, I took up the issue with Platform 5 (the publisher) myself. The response from one member of the editorial board was that he agreed with me that the word was inappropriate; the managing editor did not really agree with that but noted my comments for future reference suggesting that these matters would always be about balance and I was satisfied with that response. The reason why access to the UK's motive power depots is so difficult these days is because in my opinion (and you are welcome to disagree or agree): 1. They are mostly privately operated by companies/individuals - not nationalised and publicly owned. 2. The insurance premiums are probably huge, with more onus on the insured entity limiting access to prevent spurious insurance claims for accidents by ambulance chasing lawyers in order to be insured for a reasonable price. 3. Terrorism - there have been lots of terrorist acts on public transport therefore security is more heightened than in previous times. I hope that Amazon finds this review more acceptable this time. As I said, the book is a 'must have' but what we don't need is books like this bringing in divisive concepts like the one mentioned in this book's introduction. We have hobbies to escape from politics and division don't we? Train spotting - like rugby for example - is a social leveller enabling people of all sorts of backgrounds (social, political, vocational) to come together in mutual enjoyment of a shared interest. Long may that be so. Thank you.

What more can I say. The first one was brilliant and this one is just as good. Can't wait for the next.

Book arrived with old damage, torn pages and staining plus an odd smell.

A superb book-highly recommended