'The Last Decade of British Railways Steam'

This is a recently published book similar to our book New Zealand 1950s Steam in Colour, except that in covering the period 1958 to 1968, most of it is a decade later.  Having 208 pages with a hardcover and jacket it is about the same size as ours, and the £30 retail price is compatible too (unlike NZ, the UK has no VAT on books).

It takes a year by year rather than a geographic approach (north to south etc), and includes a range of location types and seasons, although summer pictures dominate. The captions written by the photographer have enabled more personal accounts of what was going on at the time and noteworthy; in our case most of the photographers were not around to ask.  As for quality, it seems that apart from maybe removing purple patches and crud, the pre-press person involved hasn't done anything about color modifications, and there are quite a few of the photos that would have benefited from increased saturation or vibrance. Many also seem to have a slight blue haze effect which, while it's no doubt common in reality, makes you wonder if it is accurate.

Like our book, this makes a valuable addition to the steam railway enthusiast's bookshelf.