Author Christopher Valkoinen, who works in the museum’s library and archives, has chosen over 130 drawings from the collection, along with a similar number of photographs, for ‘Railways: A History in Drawings’ (Thames & Hudson, £50, published August 26 2021), and provides a fascinating commentary explaining their significance.
It's not a book to read from cover to cover, but dipping in at random throws up all kinds of interesting snippets of technical and social history and is rewarding enough to make you want to return again and again and to share your new discoveries with your family and friends.
However, if you want to be more systematic, the material is organised by theme, beginning with the timeline of ‘Two centuries of locomotion’, from the horse dandy to the British Rail High Speed Train. Other sections cover passengers, freight, railway workers, ‘the railway workshop of the world’, railways at war and the infrastructure of track and stations...