Coaching Stock

As a teenage trainspotter in the late 1980s, this was the book i really really wanted. This rolling stock recognition guide from 1983 by Colin J Marsden covered the thousands of passenger carrying coaches and their goods carrying derivatives that travelled up and down the British Rail network. Unfortunately, the book was impossible to find with my meagre teenage resources. This was long before the likes of eBay when you can find anything you want within seconds.

When i did finally get this book a couple of years ago (eBay natch), the vast majority of passenger coaches covered in this book were now long gone (except for preserved railway lines) so there is not much left to recognise!

However, this is a great nostalgic guide to the days when locomotives hauled passengers around, not multiple units which sound like angry wasps. An elegant document from a more civilised age.