Stationmaster's Reflections

Having been out of print for many years, Silver Link are particularly pleased to bring back this simply superb volume. The combination of being an exceptional photographer and working railwayman makes David's volume quite remarkable. Hardly ever without his camera, David's working day took him to all the right places to capture steam and the results speak for themselves.
The author joined BR in 1954 and in 1962 became a Station Master, thus putting him in an ideal position to observe the passing scene during a momentous decade of change which saw the gradual demise of the old order.

Luckily for us he took his camera with him everywhere, and in this remarkable pictorial record he reflects on railway life during that decade and paints a vivid portrait of a long-vanished Steam Age. Every one of the more than 200 superb and fully captioned photographs oozes atmosphere, and since freight was the starting point in David Holmes’s career the emphasis is on that vast yet unsung operation.

Lumbering, loose-coupled goods trains, grimy locomotive sheds, bustling local passenger services and crack steam-hauled expresses. Seldom has that era been better chronicled.