Last Updated on April 23, 2026
Just how a voluntary preservation society kept alive a narrow-gauge railway in a remote valley of the Welsh mountains.
For a band of amateur railwaymen to undertake the operation of even the smoothest running of railways would have been venturesome enough, but the one thing about the Talyllyn Railway was that it never ran smoothly. No two journeys were the same and none lacked incident.
How the temperamental veteran locomotive Dol-goch, together with an enthusiasm and love of the job which inspired every volunteer, overcame the handicaps of worn permanent way, ancient rolling stock and primitive equipment to maintain a service from bluebell to blackberry time makes absorbing reading.
L. T. C. Rolt spent the first part of his life as a mechanical engineer. Since then he has devoted his time to writing with the exception of acting as General Manager for the first two years of the newly constituted Talyllyn Railway. Also available in Pan Books is his Red for Danger which covers every major accident on British railways between 1840 and 1957.
This book was previously for sale at Margot’s Books. The shop is now closed — this post is kept as an archive record only.
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