A Journey in Time

Author James Barry was clearing an old desk before sending it for wood proofing.

As the drawers were removed his old mottled reporter's notebook fell from within.

It described a journey he made in June 1961 on the footplate of an express between Bristol and Shrewsbury, to be used as background for a technical magazine article.

The notebook was subsequently mislaid and its rediscovery after forty-five years is almost miraculous.

From his original notes he has crafted a fond memoir of what it was like to drive and fire a steam hauled express train in the days just prior to dieselisation.

He explains, in vivid first hand narrative the art and craft of how and why the train was driven, in a fascinating insight into the little known world of the steam locomotive footplate.

It is written in a knowledgeable anecdotal style for the young, old and those who remember with affection the days when trains ran as God intended on the most Wonderful of Railways.

Steam trains have an international following, but even if you are only slightly interested in industrial archaeology or the great days of steam railways you will enjoy this book, as a window on a vanished world.If you are a fan of the old Great Western Railway and its locomotives you will recognise it as a notable addition to the vast canon of literature and knowledge on that subject.

It is also a historic first hand record of the everyday work and methods of steam era enginemen, whose ranks inevitably thin by the year.

Many books and accounts have been written giving dry mechanical detail, but none has described the sheer art and craft of working a heavy cross country express in steam days, explaining the how and why of what crews had to contend with in the course of their daily work.

It has been written with the realisation that it describes a Britain that has all but vanished, and a way of life that now survives only tenuously in the 21st Century.