Preface to the Second Edition

I am delighted to be able to present the second edition of this register. It has been a long time coming and probably would not have appeared at all if it had not been for the many letters of support which I have received since the first edition was published in this form. Clearly the register is being used by many fellow enthusiasts and there has also been a lot of interest from people - mainly from abroad - who are trying to research links with their families. Thanks to all those people who have written to me.

The second edition (Revision 21) brings the register more up to date. It now contains 91,265 records, featuring 10,356 different locations. The references have been extracted from 2,005 books and a very large number of periodicals. Generally, periodicals up to December 1998 are now included.

Clive Williams
Huddersfield
December 1999

Preface to the First Edition

I am certain that most enthusiasts with a collection of more than a few books will have experienced the frustation of knowing they have a particular photograph but cannot remember where they have seen it! When my own collection - particularly of magazines - reached a critical size, I had to concede that my memory was not up to the task of remembering such details and I decided to compile a Register covering my main railway interest : railway stations. The work is now at a stage where it could conceivably be of value to other enthusiasts, such as modellers and researchers, who wish to locate appropriate published photographic material for their projects. Accordingly, I have decided to publish the Register and, in the interests of freedom of information, the Internet is the obvious place to put it.

This first edition is the result of five years of research and it contains 77, 616 records, covering 9, 477 different locations. Each record is a reference to a photograph in a book or magazine and most of the source documents are available from local lending libraries.

Photographic records have been extracted from 1, 668 books and a very large number of periodicals. I have tried to concentrate on books which are most likely to contain good views of the less frequently photographed railway stations, such as branch line albums, local interest books from smaller publishers, and books which are dedicated to the study of railway architecture. Inevitably, however, some books are more concerned with locomotive portraits and the station is incidental to the main theme.

There are, of course, a great many books and magazines to which I do not have access and here the reader is invited to make contributions for inclusion in future editions. I would ask only that the material is presented in a form that is in accordance with the methods used in this book and that any ambiguity about the exact station concerned is removed (give geographical location, railway company, etc. if in doubt). Particularly welcome are references to stations which are currently missing from the Register.

Despite the many hours it has taken to research, prepare and verify the information on the reference pages, it is almost inevitable that there will be some transcriptional or typographical errors present. Errors in captioning (including mis-spellings) and vagueness about the precise location of the station have added to my problems. I have tried to remove ambiguities concerning station names by giving each station a unique name which is used even if there is no longer any ambiguity (eg. Chester General) or if it has never actually been used. Efforts have been made to eliminate misleading references and any still remaining will only come to light as the book is used. If a particular photograph is not to be found on the page given then it is worthwhile looking on neighbouring pages. This is particularly important when the pages are not numbered and the 'first page' at which to start counting may not be obvious.

I believe the information to be correct : indeed, it is presented in good faith and I cannot be responsible for any situation arising from the use of the information. I recommend that users check the actual photograph before ordering or purchasing a book - I have made good use of local libraries and bookshops in this respect. This will ensure that the reference is correct and also meets the user's needs - e.g. there is no identification of internal and external views. An atmospheric view of a milk churn on the platform edge may not be what is actually required! I would be pleased to hear of any mistakes as they are found so that future editions can be corrected.

My aim is to produce updates of the Register at fairly regular intervals to cover the latest books and periodicals and I will also include readers contributions and corrections. At the moment I have a backlog of around 4 years of magazines and about 100 of the more recent books. I will include these as time allows but it is quite a long job to type in and verify another 2000 references.

For a bit of fun, I have scanned a selection of my own photographs depicting various stations throughout the country and one of these is shown at the top of each page. There are 3 different photographs illustrating the introductory pages, 3 in the section on book codes and 24 in the reference section, making 30 in total. It will be interesting to see if anyone can correctly identify all the locations - no prizes, just the kudos of seeing your name acknowledged on these pages!. (As a clue, all the locations shown on the reference pages actually start with the corresponding letter apart from Q, V and Y since it seems that I haven't photographed any stations starting with those letters).

Clive Williams
Huddersfield
August 1997

These pages are designed and maintained by Clive Williams.
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Disclaimer : This information is given in good faith in the belief that it is correct. I accept no responsibility for circumstances arising from its use.