This is a book of stunning photographs illustrating the final days of steam locomotives working in industrial settings in ten countries in Europe, Cuba, and Asia.
Published in March 2023 by Amberley Publishing and written by George Woods, this soft cover book is in landscape format and measures around 16.8 cm x 24.6 cm, with 128 pages and 150 colour illustrations.
It has a published price of £19.99, but at the time of writing, it can be purchased for £17.99 from Amberley Publishing and for £15.09 from Amazon.
This is a welcome change from the usual Amberley style of railway books, which are mostly a collection of photographs with brief captions.
By using a larger size and a landscape format, this book is transformed from one consigned to bookshelves to a volume that deserves a place on a coffee table.
The book lives up to the title's name of covering industrial railways around the world. However, only ten countries warrant inclusion, with a chapter for each covering Germany, Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Cuba, Southern Africa, India, Myanmar, Java, and China, which understandably accounts for just under half the book's content with separate sections bringing to life The Greatest Steam Show on Earth in South, Central, and West China; and North East China.
From start to finish, the photographs are stunning and enhance the useful and interesting introductions to each chapter. However, the content is unbalanced, as Chapters 1, Germany; 2, Romania; 4, Serbia; and 8, Myanmar, Chapter 8 have only two to four pages each.
In contrast, the other countries are covered with a wide range of locations and displays of steam power. A finale in Chapter 10, China, sub-section titled The Last Great Steam Show on Earth, lives up to expectations with views of steam locomotives blasting smoke high into the air, working hard in winter.
There's no mistaking that the scenes below were taken in industrial railways, with these taken at a colliery in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Until recently, Cuba was a steam enthusiast's paradise, with its enormous network of railways connecting large numbers of sugar cane plantations with the sugar mills.
The photographs below are typical of these sugar plantation trains.
Many people associate Indian railways with over-crowded trains, but the country had another side with industrial railways, notably on sugar cane plantations and coal mines, but steam operation in those settings is now consigned to history.
Despite the book's sub-title stating The 21st Century, the left-hand and top-right photos were both taken in 1992.
Java, like Cuba, had an extensive network of railways connecting its sugar plantations with its sugar mills. The lines lasted longer into the 21st century than their Cuban cousins, and whereas the sample of photos from Cuba showed the sugar cane trains at work, here the author shows them in impressive engine sheds.
Many of the photographs in the China chapter live up to its sub-title of The Last Great Steam Show on Earth, as the scenes below may never be repeated with the lines shown having been turned over to diesel power.
The large size and landscape format of this book sets it apart from the normal Amberley style of railway books.
I was a little disappointed that despite the title stating “…Around the World”, the majority of the content is devoted to just five countries: Cuba, Southern Africa, India, Java, and China, although the lack of topographical diversity is more than compensated for by the stunning photographs taken in a wide range of locations, from opencast coal mines, quarries, and steelworks to sugar plantations.
Without exception, they are all well reproduced.
The book is available to purchase from Amazon and Amberley Publishing.
We would like to thank Amberley Publishing for providing us with a copy of the book for review.
