The Bird Watcher and other eccentric tales from the tracks

No period of British History has been quite so thoroughly chronicled as the railway Steam Age. And yet hardly any reference is made to the colourful characters who manned the locomotives. 'The Birdwatcher and other tales from the footplate' deals not with the typical men of the Iron Road who put up with the erratic hours and demanding labour of the Steam Age with a stoic resignation rarely equalled, but with the more outrageously bizarre members of the fraternity, whose zany behaviour provoked gales of laughter in all who observed their antics.

With two men working together on the footplate six and seven days a week for more than a year at a time, the kind of relationship they established was important to the smooth running of the trains; that relationship also generated the hilarious stories that form the basis of this highly entertaining anthology. Although all the characters are fictitious, Stan Wilson has drawn them all faithfully from life.

They are funny, nostalgic and irreverent tales of men that the author knew personally during his 20 years on the footplate, and whose foibles and eccentricities he now shares with us. These are stories that will appeal not only to steam enthusiasts, but to everyone blessed with a sense of humour.