A personal colour odyssey by an author captivated by steam, like most of us, at an early, highly impressionable age and in his case the introduction was grander than most – the Royal Train passing through Henley-in-Arden in April 1950 headed, memorably by two Castles.

The inevitable induction into the local band of platform enders followed, then trips by bicycle to sheds and other centres and finally steam tours as pocket money came to be bolstered by paper round cash.

‘I lived in Stratford-upon-Avon at the time the photographs in this book were taken and there were London Midland Region main line strongholds within very easy reach. My father worked in Birmingham, and I would sometimes spend a day at New Street station which was still divided by Queen’s Drive between the ex-LNWR and Midland Railway platforms before it was ‘modernised’. I was particularly fascinated by the Harborne Branch which was worked at the time by Johnson Midland Railway 2F 0-6-0s from Monument Lane shed. There were also visits to local Midland Region sheds, Saltley, Aston, Monument Lane, Bescot and Bushbury, as well as, in retrospect, logistically quite complicated trips. I recently found details of one of them, on Sunday 14 June 1959, when I visited Nuneaton, Stafford, Stoke, Alsager, Uttoxeter and Burton. Phew!’

Third in a series; previous volumes are:

• Way Down South
• Western Way

128 pages  with colour photographs. HARDBACK