George Woods uses his rare and unpublished full colour photography to look at steam in the Southern Region in the 1960s.

This book, covering the final years of steam on Britain’s railways, presents a wonderful array of over 200 color photographs, many of them previously unpublished. All the imagery is reproduced from original transparencies that have remained carefully preserved away from daylight since the day they were taken, so the original vividness of color remains – a rare quality. This book will delight today’s railway enthusiasts who are looking for new material.

A nostalgic look back at the days of Steam in the Southern Region.

Explore a selection of previously unpublished images documenting the Southern region's electric traction.

ALAN MAUND lived in Worcestershire all his life and had an enthusiasm for steam. He traveled extensively in Britain and built up a large railway photographic archive from the late 1950s onwards. This book is made up entirely of Alan's collection of photographs from across the Midlands. It will appeal to railway enthusiasts, modelers, and those with an interest in local history. Alan started using color film in 1959, and color slides make up the majority of these photographs. Many enthusiasts in this era had a policy of filming steam only and ignoring the new diesel interlopers, but not Alan; diesels do make appearances, and so do some early electric classes. A particular passion of Alan's was small industrial steam locomotives, and he restored a Kerr Stuart 'Wren' class 0-4-0 to working order between 1959 and 1961. So in addition to larger British Railways locomotives, their smaller relations are also seen across the Midlands. Alan passed on in 1983 and his widow, Wendy, gave Alan's collection of railway photographs to filmmaker and author Michael Clemens, whose late father was a friend of Alan's. Alan's collection lives on today at film shows around the country and now in this book.

A year-by-year journey through Southern Region in the 1960s.