Early Railways 6  – Edited by Anthony Coulls

This book, Early Railways 6, for which this is the advance call for subscriptions, will be my next academically published work.

The series of Early Railways Conferences held its sixth gathering in June 2016 in the cradle of railway history that is Newcastle, with visits and events across Tyneside away from the conference venue. A full programme of papers showed that there is still a rich seam of research being undertaken into early railways across the globe. In this volume, a selection of papers cover that international aspect whilst others break new ground in terms of location and subject, always part of the excitement of the conference, where conversations over coffee turn up new research potential almost every minute. Dr Michael Lewis examines the very basics of early pointwork and track, John R New’s paper explores why the horse was displaced as motive power and Dr David Gwyn reflects on the first railways in Africa. Between the variety of other papers, the social, economic and technological history of early railways is covered. Given the amazing wooden waggonway discovery and excavations on Tyneside in the summer of 2014, the book begins with Discovering the Willington Waggonway which was the public lecture and sets the tone for the rest of the publication.

The papers

Discovering the Willington Waggonway: Archaelogical excavations at Neptune Yard on North Tyneside in 2013, R Carlton, L Turnbull & A Williams

Early Railways In The Bristol Coalfield,Steve Grudgings

Why Killingworth?,Robert F Hartley

Pointwork to 1830, Dr M J T Lewis

Why Displace the Horse? John R New

Early Locomotives of the St. Etienne-Lyon Railway, Miles McNair

Blücher and After: A Re-assessment of George Stephenson’s First Locomotives Dr Michael R. Bailey

Interpreting Sources for the operation of the Durham & Sunderland Railway 1836-56, Colin Mountford

Early Locomotive Performance, Peter Davidson

Penydarren Re-Examined Andy Guy, Dr Michael Bailey, Dr David Gwyn, Robert Protheroe Jones, Dr Michael Lewis, John Liffen, and Jim Rees

Two Early French Non-Railways, Dr M J T Lewis

Joseph Atkinson and the Early Images of the Tanfield Arch, Robin Adams

Plateways, Steel Road Rails, and Rutways in Australia, Dr Jim Longworth and Phil Rickard

The First Railways in Africa, Dr David Gwyn

When to Stop Digging: Assessing the Excavated Evidence, Helen Gomersall

Sierra Leone: Proposals for a Colonial Early Railway, Anthony Coulls

Publication

The book will be published by Six Martlets Publishing on behalf of the sponsors at the discounted price of £35 each plus postage and packing. To reserve a copy go to www.earlyrailways.org.uk or contact the publisher for an order form.

The postage and packing rates will be: UK, £3.50 per book. Europe, £9.00 per book. Other countries, £14.00 per book.

All subscribers will receive a copy of the book at the discounted price for advance payment and will have their subscription acknowledged in the preliminary pages. The subscription list will close on 1 October 2018 and the book will be published shortly after. This will be the only opportunity to obtain a copy at the discounted price. To order contact Six Martlets Publishing, c/o Better Prepared Ltd, 15 Diamond Court, Opal Drive, Fox Milne, Milton Keynes MK15 0DU. sixmartlets@uwclub.net

ER6 was sponsored by The Newcomen Society, The Railway and Canal Historical Society, The Institution of Civil Engineers & The National Railway Museum. The Stephenson Locomotive Society also fully support the publication of this volume containing papers presented at the Conference by several SLS members. Although, as at the 2016 event date, the SLS, of which I am a Director, was not one of the official event sponsors the SLS has subsequently become actively involved in promoting the Early Railways Conference serial.

Notes

1. More about the 2016 Conference was in my September 2016 blog post.
2. List of all my published work.