R. W. Kidner (1914–2007)

R.W. Kidner started a series of handbooks of light and narrow gauge railways in the British Isles in the years immediately before the Second World War when such lines were coming under increased economic pressure. His work was timely, as many such lines barely survived up to the outbreak of hostilities, and many never re-opened. Of course, the preservation movement was unknown then, and many of the lines he describes in Wales particularly have been revived in the post-war years. But plenty more have not, and the English lines come under this category. (The title of this book is a slight misnomer, as it covers Scotland as well; but there was only one serious narrow-gauge line then generally known north of the Border, the Campeltown and Macrihanish at the tip of the Mull of Kintyre; the Lochaber line, operated by the British Aluminium Company on the southern slopes of Ben Nevis, was unknown to most enthusiasts due to its almost total inaccessibility.)

Kidner's series of handbooks stayed in print into the 1960s, with some additions to try to keep them up to date; but they looked increasingly anachronistic due to their hand-drawn maps and sketches of locomotives, and the small size and poor quality of photographic reproduction. But they remain useful as compendia of lines often now almost erased from history.… (altro)