Railways

Photography by Alain Le Garsmeur, Additional Text by Chris Awdry, very numerous illustrations from colour photographs, coloured maps, details and a potted history of each railway, 192 pp, black boards in d/w, in very good condition, HarperCollins 1992

23.9 x 28.5 cm, 1250g, ISBN 0 00218 425 7

That is, the narrow-gauge railways open to the public.  See the description from the dustwrapper flap.

Full of bizarre details – take the train (pictured below) from the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway.  It was the world’s only 15-inch gauge armoured train during World War Two, and claimed to have shot down a German aircraft.  A slightly more prosaic explanation was that the German pilot, flying over the featureless marsh,  mistook it for a full-size train, and in diving to attack it flew into the ground . . . .

The book is long out of print.