This is a portfolio of the author’s photographs, many of them previously unpublished, of Class 08 diesel shunters taken at a host of locations around Scotland since 1979.

Published in October 2023 by Amberley Publishing and written by Colin J. Howat, this soft cover book measures around 23.4 cm x 16.5 cm, has 96 pages and 180 illustrations and has a published price of £15.99, but at the time of writing, it can be purchased for £14.39 from Amberley Publishing and for £12.29 from Amazon.

The book has an over-long 12-page Introduction followed by 82 pages of photographs captioned to show relevant details about the locomotives, their work, location, and date. The Introduction is far too extensive for a book of this nature, as it tells the history and development of the class going back to the 1940s, and even extends to modifications of some of the class for use overseas.

The author has also included a five-page table listing each member of the class that has been preserved, with details of their numbering history, location, and livery. As only three Class 08s are currently preserved in Scotland, that would seem rather superfluous.

In each caption, the author has included the locomotive’s home depot, but that information seems meaningless when many of them are working elsewhere. Also, one of the depot codes is given as HQ, standing for Headquarters, which again adds no value to the photo.

My main comment about this book is the generally poor quality of the photographs, both in their composition and quality. Too many have been either over-enlarged or are out of focus, whilst others supposedly show a Class 08 but it appears as a tiny speck lost among a collection of railway infrastructure.

While most pages have two photos per page, some, such as the ones below, have three resulting in a smaller size which could have been avoided if the Introduction had been less detailed. Where the subject locomotive is already quite indistinct as at the bottom-left and top-right below, the smaller size results in the Class 08 locomotive almost vanishing into the background.

Quite why the locomotive at centre-left has been included in a book illustrating Class 08s is a mystery, as it is a Class 11, although it does qualify for inclusion as the photo was taken in Scotland.

The extra size afforded by having two instead of three photos per page can be appreciated in the pages below. The photo at the bottom right highlights my previous comment regarding the subject locomotive getting lost among other railway infrastructure, especially as in this case it was a poor-quality photograph to begin with.

Whereas in the previous example, the subject locomotive was discernible, in the example at the top-left the Class 08 is almost non-existent. The other photos below also show the author’s inclusion of depot allocation, such as (ED) and (AY) which adds nothing to enhance the caption.

The photo at the bottom right is another example where the subject locomotive has been lost among other railway infrastructure. It also has a similar failing as some others in this book of poor composition, with this example showing the loco positioned behind a large pole, rather than the photographer waiting for the locomotive to move clear.

Although Class 08 locomotives were to be found throughout the UK, choosing to publish a book restricted to their use in Scotland would, judging by the quality of some of the content, appear to have been very challenging.

The inclusion of a 12-page Introduction describing the history and development of the class is more suited to an appreciation of the class in general, and would have benefitted if there had been a brief discussion about their use in Scotland.

With only three Class 08s currently preserved in Scotland, a five-page table detailing each preserved Class 08 seems to be totally unnecessary, as is the inclusion of each locomotive’s home depot in the captions.

Too many photographs are generally of poor quality, both in clarity and composition. With many reasonably-priced, or even free, photo-editing programs available, there is no excuse for such failings.

Overall, the book appears to be the author’s project to see a collection of his photographs in print, but the result does not do justice to his efforts.

The book is available to purchase from Amazon and from Amberley Publishing.

We would like to thank Amberley Publishing for providing us with a copy of the book for review.