An enterprising, ambitious book, superbly produced and illustrated. Assiduously referenced, it has a useful bibliography and index.

Railway and Canal Historical Society

A comprehensive history of Britain's heritage railways.

The Countryman, February 2018 – reviewed by Mark Whitley

A conscientious and well documented work.

Read the full Spanish review here.

José Manuél Rico Cortés (Mister JM) - Miniaturas JM

A splendid history of Britain's heritage railways.

Evergreen, Winter 2017

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Telegraph & Argus (Bradford)

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Keighley News

An extremely informative and thoughtful account of an important phase of recent railway history. It is well produced with an interesting selection of almost all colour photographs. There can be few people with an interest in today's railways who will be unmoved by the heritage aspect.

Friends of the National Railway Museum

A well researched and written treatise running to over 300 pages and emphasising problems which have to be overcome, not least financially, by promoters of preservation schemes.
A very readable and informative book.

Railway Observer Oct 2017

This superb book reinforces the notion that the people of this country, together with our tourist friends from all over the world, can see the benefits of reviving and maintaining the various heritage railways that now run in our little country. There is an appetite for nostalgia that was never satisfied so well as with a journey on a steam railway. Magical.

Books Monthly

The overall result is a well-rounded account, written in an accessible style, of how over more than 65 years the railway preservation movement has grown to be the heritage sector of the railway industry. Just about every line in operation is covered to some degree together with details of a good many projects which never got off the ground.

Mr Brown discusses a wide of topics including finance, marketing and governance. The last mentioned details the wide range of corporate structures, ranging from the purely commercial operations, through the PLC and supporters club approach to the mutual and co-operative, often volunteer controlled, end of the scale as typified by the K&ESR’s Company Limited by Guarantee. This is a ‘warts and all’ account and he addresses the sometimes difficult topics of relations between paid staff and volunteers and disputes between Board and workforce. He also honestly looks at such ‘unmentionables’ as volunteer antipathy towards professional general managers and the fact that different groups of members within the same railway often don’t like each other.

If you want an in-depth account of how heritage railways have got to where they are read this book. It is thoroughly recommended.

Tenterden Terrier