LSWR West Country Lines Then and Now By Mac Hawkins
LSWR West Country Lines Then and Now (Collectible First Edition Thus)
A Photographic Masterpiece Documenting the Vanished Glory of the London & South Western Railway
A Photographic Masterpiece Documenting the Vanished Glory of the London & South Western Railway
Bibliographic Specifications
- Title: LSWR West Country Lines Then and Now
- Author: Mac Hawkins
- Foreword / Introduction: Sir William McAlpine
- Publisher: Grange Books, London
- Publication Date: 1999
- ISBN-13: 9781840133221 (ISBN-10: 1840133228)
- Edition Details: First Edition Thus. Highly sought-after industrial archaeology and transport landscape monograph.
- Binding: Hardcover with original publisher's matching high-gloss pictorial boards (As Issued). Housed under a protective archive cellophane wrapper.
- Physical Format: Large Quarto Format (Oversized 4to), 221 pages. Extensively illustrated with hundreds of meticulously paired historical steam-era archive photos and precisely matched modern comparative landscape photographs, map layouts, and gradient charts.
- Language: English
Official Condition Report
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The Book: Used – Like New / Near Mint
- Exterior / Boards: The original publisher's matching pictorial hardcover boards are exceptionally sharp, perfectly square, and bright. Exhibits only very slight, microscopic signs of standard shelf storage wear along the extreme base tips. The spine is completely immaculate, straight, robustly bound, and uncreased with perfect structural integrity.
- Interior: Pristine, crisp, and beautifully preserved. The 221 heavyweight art-paper pages are immaculately clean, white, and fully intact. Free from handling soils, water wrinkling, thumb marks, or dealer pencil corrections.
- Provenance / Note: Features a discreet, neat ownership rubber stamp on the front first preliminary page, providing an authentic touch of private library provenance without obscuring any title text or photographic material.
- Protection: Beautifully looked after and maintained, now protected in a premium, removable archival-grade cellophane sleeve.
Synopsis & Historical Value
Published in 1999 by Grange Books, LSWR West Country Lines Then and Now is an extraordinarily evocative, expertly executed photographic record of the once-great London & South Western Railway at work across England's West Country. Introduced by the legendary rail preservationist Sir William McAlpine, author Mac Hawkins presents a hauntingly beautiful collection of historical steam-era archive photographs—including the prime operational days of the legendary Atlantic Coast Express services—juxtaposed with his own precisely matched modern shots taken from the exact same physical coordinates. Hawkins painstakingly tracks the devastating aftermath of Dr Beeching’s infamous 1963 report, which downgraded the Waterloo main line, ripped up double tracks, and abandoned the iconic branches to Bude and Padstow (famously dubbed the Southern’s "withered arm"). Reinforced by deeply detailed captions and a rich historical narrative charting changes in the line, land, and local architecture, this substantial 221-page volume serves as a vital work of industrial archaeology, freezing in time a system slowly reverting back to nature.
Published in 1999 by Grange Books, LSWR West Country Lines Then and Now is an extraordinarily evocative, expertly executed photographic record of the once-great London & South Western Railway at work across England's West Country. Introduced by the legendary rail preservationist Sir William McAlpine, author Mac Hawkins presents a hauntingly beautiful collection of historical steam-era archive photographs—including the prime operational days of the legendary Atlantic Coast Express services—juxtaposed with his own precisely matched modern shots taken from the exact same physical coordinates. Hawkins painstakingly tracks the devastating aftermath of Dr Beeching’s infamous 1963 report, which downgraded the Waterloo main line, ripped up double tracks, and abandoned the iconic branches to Bude and Padstow (famously dubbed the Southern’s "withered arm"). Reinforced by deeply detailed captions and a rich historical narrative charting changes in the line, land, and local architecture, this substantial 221-page volume serves as a vital work of industrial archaeology, freezing in time a system slowly reverting back to nature.
Author Profile: Mac Hawkins
Mac Hawkins is a highly respected British transport historian, professional landscape photographer, and archivist specializing in the industrial archaeology of the United Kingdom's vanished railway infrastructure. Renowned within the railway community for his uncompromising dedication to precision "then and now" comparative photography, Hawkins spent years physically tracking down abandoned trackbeds, overgrown cuttings, and converted station houses. His authoritative monographs provide a crucial historical bridge for railway modeling enthusiasts, preservation societies, and transport bibliophiles seeking to document the structural evolution of the golden age of steam travel.
Mac Hawkins is a highly respected British transport historian, professional landscape photographer, and archivist specializing in the industrial archaeology of the United Kingdom's vanished railway infrastructure. Renowned within the railway community for his uncompromising dedication to precision "then and now" comparative photography, Hawkins spent years physically tracking down abandoned trackbeds, overgrown cuttings, and converted station houses. His authoritative monographs provide a crucial historical bridge for railway modeling enthusiasts, preservation societies, and transport bibliophiles seeking to document the structural evolution of the golden age of steam travel.
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