John Hillmer

Passengers Once More' is the title of a new series of books to be published by Silver Link. The series will cover the whole of Great Britain and will be deliberately positive in its approach, as the emphasis will be on reinstated or new stations and lines. The books will be copiously illustrated with photographs at each location featured. Data for each location will include opening, closing and reopening dates, a map reference, the original railway company and the train operating company currently managing the station. Reference will also be made to photographs of the same location published in the British Railways Past & Present series. Captions will comment on the frequency of the service, reasons for opening/reopening and other features as appropriate. Each book will be arranged in line and geographical order. This first book in the series, by Terry Gough, covers all lines and stations from Kent to Cornwall. The second book, by the same author, covers Greater London, Essex and counties to Gloucester. The third volume by John Hillmer will cover Wales, the Border Counties and Merseyside. Further volumes are in preparation. All of these books will cover all relevant stations and lines from the smallest halt to the major station developments such as the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, now referred to as High Speed 1.

Talks about: West Lancashire lines to Southport and Ormskirk; Preston station and approaches; and branches to Longridge and Knott End. This book also talks about L&YR routes to Blackburn, Burnley, Accrington and Colne; railways of the Fylde; Lancaster, Morecambe and Heysham; lines around Carnforth; and the Furness Railway.

As the British Rail years drew to a close and the new era of privatisation dawned, John Hillmer set out to record photographically the entire railway scene in Wales, and this remarkable and wide-ranging book is the result. Every Welsh Station that was open at the end of 1995 - the last year in which BR operated a fully nationalised and integrated system - is chronicled and pictured, and signal boxes, sidings, yards, locomotive depots, stabling and re-fuelling points are also covered, together with summaries of passenger services and freight flows, and locomotive classes and DMU types then in use.

From the north of Scotland, down the east coast into England to Kent, along the South coast to Penzance, up the north coasts of Cornwall and Devon, along the Bristol Channel, west into Wales to Fishguard, north to Aberystwyth and along the Welsh coast to Holyhead, east along the North Wales coast, round the Wirral, up to Southport, Blackpool and then north into the west of Scotland to Mallaig and to The Kyle of Lochalsh at the end. Plus the coastal termini in Northern Ireland.