The Great Western Railway in West Cornwall
Southampton: Kingfisher Railway Productions, 1988. Very Good. Item #9359
ISBN: 0946184356
Southampton: Kingfisher Railway Productions, 1988. First Edition. Signed. Quarto (27x22x0.5cm); 80pp. Ninety-four B&W reproductions of documentary photographs, maps, timetables, and railway ephemera. Photographic card wrappers.
Card wrappers show some touches of shelfwear at edges and a bit of sunning near the card spine, which is uncracked. Textblock unmarred and unmarked apart from author's signature on verso of front cover.
In addition to its primary goal of providing historical information on the rail system itself, the volume is, as a corollary, an industrial, mercantile, and touristic review of the evolution of the Cornwall peninsula in the 19th century. The railway was the enzyme that transformed it from a far-off Land's End to a serviceable and visitable part of Britain, connecting Penzance (as in "Pirates of . . . ") to London itself.
Price: $30.00