Welcome to the Railway Studies Friends

The Railway Studies Collection is administered by Devon County Council's Libraries Service. It is based at the Newton Abbot Library in recognition of the town's Railway heritage.

The reference only collection is open to the public on :-

• Wednesdays 10am to 1pm, 2pm to 5pm
• Thursdays 10am to 1pm
• Saturdays 10am to 1pm and 2pm to 4pm

The Railway Studies collection is manned by a Librarian on weekdays and volunteers on Saturdays.

FRIENDS OF THE RAILWAY STUDIES COLLECTION

Established in 1992 the Friends support the collection by various means including volunteering for Saturday opening hours, fund raising for the purchase of new titles for the Collection or giving specialist advice on the many unidentified photographs and slides held by the Collection.

Membership of the Friends costs £6 per annum and membership details are available from:

The Secretary, Mr J Hartley, Woodlands, Old Newton Road, Kingskerwell, Newton Abbot. Telephone No. 01803 873339.

The Friends also hold a series of talks /slide shows throughout the year, details of which for the current year are in the News Section of this web site. Collections are often left to the Railway Studies Collection and these are dealt with by the Library Service. Volunteers are on hand to assist in sorting out such collections. If there are any duplicate titles these are donated to the Friends who then dispose of them and then use the money raised to buy new titles for the Railway Studies Collection.

NEWS

All the meetings of the Friends are held in the Railway Studies Room at Newton Abbot Library commencing at 7pm. They are held on the third Wednesday of each month and the meetings commence after the summer break on Wednesday 16th September 2009. Further details of the meetings to be announced during the summer. All are welcome.

The subscription rate for the membership of the Friends for 2009/10 is £6.00. Renewals are now due and payment should be made to either:

Peter Rowledge, 5 Shobbrook Hill, Newton Abbot TQ12 1UZ or

DG Walker, 68 Mile End Road, Newton Abbot TQ12 1RW

Please make out cheques payable to Friends of the Railway Studies Collection.

NEWS FROM THE LIBRARY

Sales News - There is a further book list of surplus titles for sale, details available from Sherryl at the Railway Studies Library.

Volunteers from the Friends are currently archiving the photographs held by the Railway Studies Collection.

If anyone has a detailed knowledge of the London Brighton and South Coast Railway could they please contact Graham Walker at the address listed on this web site. The Collection has a large number of photographs of the LBSCRly and whilst the locomotives can be identified the locations are proving difficult to identify.

Working Timetables

The collection has recently been donated over a 100 volumes of Network Rail's Working Timetables covering all parts of the United Kingdom. These timetables cover the period of 10 years to 2008.

In addition the Collection already has an extensive collection of British Railway and British Rail working timetables again covering all parts of the Network. All these volumes are available for public use at the Collection at Newton Abbot Railway Studies Library. Please contact Sherryl, the Railway Studies Librarian for further details.

Archiving the Photographic Collection

Steady progress is being made in identifying the numerous photographs held by the Railway Studies Collection. To date over 9,000 photo's have been captioned with many thousands still to be done. There are several cases where it has not been able to identify the picture and so if there is anyone interested in assisting with this task, copies of the photo's can be made available . Once the photographs have been identified they are being collated on a database which will ultimately be available for interrogation. However, it is a long and time consuming task and our thanks are due to the team currently undertaking the job - Robin, Tony, Peter and Graham. If you are interested in assisting, please contact Sherryl, the Railway Studies Librarian.

COLLECTION DETAILS

The Collection which opened in 1991 is housed on the first floor of Newton Abbot Library which is a Grade 1 Listed Building. Newton Abbot was chosen because of the town's significance as a railway centre. Newton Abbot has a main line station, and was the site of a large locomotive shed [Shed code 83A] engine repair works and carriage and wagon works.

All aspects of Britain's Railways are covered by the collection with material of interest to railway and social historians, writer's modellers, researchers and people concerned with the contemporary scene.

There is comprehensive material on West Country Railways from the Great Western and London South Western/Southern periods up to the present day. In addition there is a substantial amount of information on the remainder of the UK's railway network with limited dealings with railways in other countries.

As well as providing info on standard gauge railways, the Collection caters for other key areas of interest such as :-

• Broad Gauge
• Narrow gauge
• Industrial Lines
• Miniature railways
• Underground Railways
• Preserved railways

This wealth of data is arranged according to a classification scheme based on that devised by George Ottley for his Bibliography of Railway History. A guide to this scheme is available in the Library.

Items in the Collection form part of the Devon Library service catalogue on the web where a list of periodical holdings is also available.
Click here to view the Devon County Council Website

The Railway Studies Collection contains:-

• Books
• pamphlets
• Timetables
• Photographs
• Post Cards
• Slides
• Drawings
• Maps
• Magazines
• Videos and railway related jig saw puzzles

Periodicals /newsletters provided by the Friends

The Friends of the Railway Studies Collection also make the following periodicals available to the Collection: the newsletter of the 125 Group, Bradford Railway Circle circular, Continental Railway Modeller, Cumbrian Railways Journal, National Railways Museum newsletter, Mid Cheshire Rail Report, Midland Railway Society Journal, Journal of the Transport Ticket Society, and the newsletter of the World War Two Study Group. Additionally the Collection hold copies of the American Railways Magazine Railfan.

The Friends have purchased the following titles for the collection since the start of 2009. The Dictionary of Railways, Diesel Retrospective Class 31, Yorkshire Engine Company, Working at Swindon Works 1920 -1960, Main Line to the West, Part three,Yeovil to Exeter, Newtown to Aberystwyth and finally Green Diesel Days.

Copyright of all photos DG Walker

DIRECTIONS

By Road: there are two large car parks within easy walking distance of the library.

They are Newfoundlandway Car Park about 200 yards from the Library entrance and a Car Park situated on the Livestock Market. Car Parking is also available on Thursdays and Saturdays in the Livestock Market Car Park which is situated at the rear of the Library.

By Rail: Newton Abbot is served by main line services provided by First Great Western and Arriva Cross Country Exeter to Plymouth main line, with local services provided by First Great Western from Exeter, Teignmouth, Dawlish, Torquay and Paignton.

The library is 20 minutes walk from the railway station. Buses run regularly from the Railway station to the town's bus station which is less than five minutes walk to the library.

Click here to view a map of how to find us

CONTACTS

Chairman of the Friends of the Raiway Studies Collection,
Mr P Rowledge,
5 Shobrook Hill,
Newton Abbot TQ12 1UZ

Secretary,
Mr J Hartley,
"Woodlands",
Old Newton Road,
Kingskerswell,
Newton Abbot TQ12 5LB

Saturday Rota Secretary,
G. Walker,
68 Mile End Road,
Newton Abbot TQ12 1RW.

Site last updated - 26.06.09

Copyright 2009 Railway Studies Friends | Copyright of all photos DG Walker