The Woodhead Line

[IBLRG]

A new Woodhead line book is out at the moment.

Published by ex BBC Look North transport correspondent Alan Whitehouse in partnership with S.R. Batty.

It's has a large collection of new pictures that have never been seen before.

The price is £35 and it is available from Lightmoor Press.

 

[jfollows]

Thank you.
Of interest to me and I didn’t know about it.
Have ordered a copy.

 

[jfollows]

The book has arrived and it's one which gets my recommendation.

Pros: Lots of text, narrative, history, background. It's not just a picture book.

Cons: Many "colourised" pictures. I'd have preferred the original black and white. However the author explains his decision.
Also "dependant" in the text which should be "dependent", which is slightly annoying to me, as it prompts the question of what other trivial details are also wrong which I don't spot?

But for me the pros outweigh the cons and it's an interesting and apparently well-researched book.

 

[John Luxton]

Cons: Many "colourised" pictures. I'd have preferred the original black and white. However the author explains his decision.
Also "dependant" in the text which should be "dependent", which is slightly annoying to me, as it prompts the question of what other trivial details are also wrong which I don't spot?

I hope this colourising trend does not spread to other railway books. I have not seen it mentioned in the context of railway books before though I have noticed people colourising old and historic images on the web and FB.
Colourised images are never quite the same as a natural colour image. I saw a colourised version of a well known photograph of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on a History site recently. The original had been taken shortly before he was assassinated and it just looked fake.

As someone who had dabbled in photography since I got my hands on a Brownie 127 in the mid 60s I often appreciate classic monochrome images. Given today's wonders of Lightroom and Photoshop I quite often find myself converting colour images to monochrome and adjusting filters to get a classic b&w image.

Perhaps its a generational thing which doesn't apply to Millennials but I often regard the most memorable images as being those taken in black and white.

However, given I travelled the Woodhead line a few times shortly before closure and did the Easter Tommy rail tour, I think I could well be tempted into buying it!