P.J.G. Ransom

Vague and unfocussed, don't bother.

Published in 1981, this falls in the time between interesting railway history as a description of their current state, or as serious histories of things past. The title "Archaeology" and the cover photo of the old Moorish Arch site in 1980 suggests that this is a look at railway history through the surviving artefacts. In which case, this is a huge disappointment. Instead it's a hand-waving history of railways overall, which is so broad yet lacking depth as show more to be weak, even for a book from that age. As a description of what still survives, rather than what took place, this could have been interesting - but as a thin general history with just a handful of contemporary photos, there's no point to it. show less