The three volumes of John Gilks’s very successful Dawn of the Diesels illustrated first-generation diesel locomotives and multiple units in the 1960s before the full effects of the Beeching closures were felt.

Now we move into a new decade, Dawn gives way to Day, and we see the first flourishing of the true Diesel Age in the early years of the 1970s. Thirty years on, who would have thought that photographs of diesel trains would be so enjoyed, and that such locomotives and units would be viewed with such affection? But here again is a magnificent selection of supremely evocative images of an era that is perhaps even further from today’s railway than it was itself from the Age of Steam.

The result is another snapshot of social history and a record of many aspects of the country railway in particular before centralisation and uniformity took control.