Recommended books - 1960s to 1980s

[west_clare_wanderer]

Hi all.

I've just returned to the hobby and, in a quest to learn more, I wondered whether anyone could recommend the best books for photos of CIE from the 1960s onwards. My favourite time is the 'Supertrain' period, but I'm certainly interested more widely too. 

Are there some top titles I must hunt out?

Many thanks for reading this, and for any assistance you can provide. Apologies if it is too broad a question and/or if I've posted in the wrong place. 

Thank you and take care. 

David 

[Mol_PMB]

I can certainly recommend some books and I probably have over 200 Irish railway books in my collection to pick from! Have you a particular interest North/South, prefer colour images, etc?

But first, have you explored the Irish Railway Record Society Flickr albums? They have nearly 30,000 Irish railway photos, many from the 1960s and 1970s.

You have to be an IRRS member to view them, but the membership cost is perhaps the same as 2 or 3 books would cost, so in terms of price per photo you'll get a much better deal!

 

Also on Flickr, and free, Ernie has some great Irish albums with a few thousand photos at least: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/albums

 

[west_clare_wanderer]

12 hours ago, Mol_PMB said:

I can certainly recommend some books and I probably have over 200 Irish railway books in my collection to pick from! Have you a particular interest North/South, prefer colour images, etc?

But first, have you explored the Irish Railway Record Society Flickr albums? They have nearly 30,000 Irish railway photos, many from the 1960s and 1970s.

You have to be an IRRS member to view them, but the membership cost is perhaps the same as 2 or 3 books would cost, so in terms of price per photo you'll get a much better deal!

 

Also on Flickr, and free, Ernie has some great Irish albums with a few thousand photos at least: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/albums

 

 

Thank you ever so much for your reply. I'm extremely grateful that you've taken the time to do so. 

Firstly, thank you for that link to Ernie's Flickr page. What an absolutely amazing resource! A very quick look has confirmed that I am going to lose many hours of my life down that rabbit hole! It looks like there are some absolutely fantastic albums in there. Exactly the kind of thing I was after. Thank you!

I'll definitely join the IRRS. As you say, at €50 a year, it looks like it provides a wealth of resources. The journal will be nice to receive too. 

I'm sorry for being so vague in my original post, I realise it hasn't really helped. In terms of interest, it's in the south. I'm trying to soak up as much inspiration as possible, but the lines radiating from Limerick are favourites. My family origins are in Kerry, Clare, and Cork, so I feel a pull to that area. I've always been fascinated with the western railway corridor too. And the Kilkenny line is another I like. 

Thanks again for being so helpful. I really appreciate it. 

David 

PS - I better not start looking at Ernie's Flickr page now, otherwise I won't make it into work today!! 

 

 

Edited 8 hours ago by west_clare_wanderer
Added the PS.

[Mol_PMB]

Welcome to the forum and feel free to ask questions! I also have fond memories of the Limerick, Clare, Cork and Kerry areas, though from numerous holidays rather than living there.

Here are a selection of books which are predominantly picture albums, and which include the area and time period that you mention:

Some of these cover the whole island of Ireland, and the books covering the 1960s can over-represent the GNR and UTA/NIR because steam lasted longer there, so people took more photos. Nevertheless there are some nice southern photos in them too.

Others cover specific lines - the 'Rails Through...' series is excellent (though can be hard to get hold of): the photos are mostly the 1970s-1990s period so some may be a bit late for you.

The 'Railways in Ireland' series are a mix of text and pictures, rather than just a picture album. They're geographically focused though - there are 4 volumes in total.

Of course there are also many superb books which are more focused on the history of each line, predominantly text and many of the pictures in them tend to be earlier than your preferred period. I haven't shown those, but if you're interested then Ernie Shepherd has written some nice ones including (in your area) those on the WL&WR and CB&SCR, while Alan O'Rourke wrote a book on the North Kerry.

 

Most of these books are out of print but available secondhand online.

 

 

[David Holman]

The Keith Pirt book is especially good as all the pictures are full page and therefore give lots of detail for everything from weathering, through wider landscapes to buildings and even clothing of the time.