Splendour of the Somerset & Dorset Railway by Alan and Christine Hammond (From Bridgwater Mercury)

Splendour of the Somerset & Dorset Railway by Alan and Christine Hammond

5:06pm Wednesday 16th June 2010 in

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PHOTOGRAPHS and memories of the Somerset and Dorset Railway feature in the latest book on the branch line by Alan and Christine Hammond.

Splendour of the Somerset and Dorset Railway features 250 photos, including several from the Burnham and Highbridge area, as well as accounts from passengers and drivers.

Memories include schoolboy pranks, growing up at lonely Catcott Crossing on the Somerset Levels and a Concorde pilot recalling using the railway line to navigate when training.

Mr Hammond, of Bishops Lydeard, said: “There are shots of trains and sheds, of stations and signal boxes, but it is the people who stand out, going about their working lives. Pictured formally posed or relaxing with colleagues, they were the heartbeat of what many remember as essentially a family line.”

Jools Holland, who used to travel south on the Pines Express for his holidays as a child, has written the forward.

The book is published by Millstream Books, of Bath, on a limited run off 2,500 copies. ISBN: 9780948975905.