Wild Swan Publishing

A comprehensive and detailed guide to the preparation, painting and lining of model locomotives and rolling stock.

Profusely illustrated in colour the methods, tools and 'tricks of the trade' used to recreate the most complex locomotive liveries are fully described. The book is completed with chapters covering coach liveries, which often feature the most intricate lining on complex panelling. The LNER teak livery is demonstrated, with the creation of effective wood grain effect, along with detailing of coach interiors.
Ready-to-run models are not ignored, with many examples being painted into different liveries and corrections to the factory finish.

An ideal guide to the creation and alteration and finishing of your models to be a specific fleet, uniquely completed by your own hand. 154 pages, US Letter size (11in x 8.5in) softback.

A comprehensive guide to replicating the effects of age, weather, wear and tear on railway rolling stock and buildings. Starting with a discussion of materials and techniques, chapters are included covering the weathering of steam and diesel locomotives, passenger coaches and goods wagons. Practical projects are described in the text with illustrations showing prototype and models being created using the techniques used.

126 pages. Soft cover.

An excellent reference book for scenery and landscape construction for model railways. Full of ideas and methods, plus the tips and tricks used on many awe-inspiring layouts to create an effective scenic setting.

A high quality pictorial album illustrating the railway and traffic of the 1950s and 1960s in an area of great importance to the Great Western and later Western Region of British Railways. Includes large scale OS map extracts which show the huge scale of the steam age railway in this busy area.
Author - John Hodge. 100 pages. Hardback

Further coverage of this main line from the busy yards of Severn Tunnel Junction to Ebbw Junction on the West of Newport. Superb photographs coupled with large scale OS map extracts to the same high quality as part 1
Author - John Hodge. 116 pages. Hardback

More superb photography as John describes and illustrates the section of main line closest to his home, from west of Cardiff (covered in part 1) on through St Fagans to Bridgend. As with all the books in this series, the traffic and trains running off the main line onto branches and industries are also well featured.
Author - John Hodge. 100 pages. Hardback.

The fourth part of John's photographic survey of the Great Western's South Wales main line, covering the line as it sweeps West and then North West from the rural landscape of South Glamorgan through to the heavy industries along the coastal strip and on into Swansea.
Author - John Hodge. 171 pages. Hardback.

We continue our pictorial journey along the South Wales main line, travelling from Swansea to Llanelly, via both the main line and Swansea District lines. As in previous volumes, John Copsey has provided extensive information on train workings which add much to the value of these books.
Author - John Hodge. 112 pages. Hardback.

This book is a photographic record of the "lesser man made features" of our environment that stand witness to and remind us of times not long past. For the most part they are everyday unremarkable things that were commonplace from Victorian times up until the second half of the last century, but which have since been largely swept away by the constant tide of modernisation. The author's fascination with these "unconsidered trifles" as he has named them (taking his cue from Autolycus in "The Winter's Tale") grew out of his hobby of building transport models of both road and railway subjects and his conviction that these models should reflect as accurately as possible the periods in which they are set.

Most of the pictures in this book have been taken in the last three or four years and show subjects which for the moment still exist and all of which are visible from public roads or footpaths. These images provide a rich visual source of these minor details, ideal for modellers and artists who wish to re-create scenes from our recent past.
Softback  -  64 pages

Memories Of The Withered Arm by Peter Barnfield. Wild Swan Publications

Recollections and beautiful pictures of a lost railway network, the landscape it ran through and the people who used it. This is a new edition of a booklet Peter published 20 years ago, this book including Peter's own photographs from the period. Most of the images presented in this book are photographs that Peter took on the journeys described and relate directly to them, while others are from other visits made to the locations in the same period. It is a huge privilege to have been entrusted with publishing Peter's material, a lot of which hasn't been seen in print before, and it gives me great pleasure to see his wonderful images together in one book. The book also includes a chapter from Peter discussing the background to the story and his approach to photography, including details of the cameras used.

Author & Photographer Peter Barnfield. 96 pages, softback, 2016

Wild Swan Modelling with Plastic Structure Kits by Iain Rice 0906867711
A newly revised and enlarged 2014 edition of this book on the construction, alteration and detailing of plastic structures.
Subtitled 'Getting the Best from the Willsa dn Ratio Ranges' accomplished modeller and layout designer Iain Rice sets out to demonstrate the use and adaptation of kits from the Wills range. He describes effective methods for customising, detailing, painting and finishing models in an easy-to-read format illustrated with sketches and photo sequences.

Somerset and Dorset Swansong - Last Days of a Steam Railway by Bob Bunyar and Wild Swan Publishing
This book focuses on the last weeks of normal services over the Somerset and Dorset Railway from Bath to Bournemouth, concluded by the final weekend in early March 1966.

Produced in a portfolio format to properly present the photographs, many of which have not been published before, the illustrations are accompanied by a description of the the line and events during the final weekend. Featuring the S&Ds mix of LMS, Southern and BR steam ranging from the smallest of tank engines to Bulleids' light pacifics and the mighty 9Fs, the S&D had stiff grades and open countryside, providing a wide choice of settings for the railway photographer.

Even 50 years after closure the unique flavour and atmosphere of the Somerset & Dorset continues to attract enthusiasts, many of whom know the line only from the superb photographic record.

In this new book photographer and diesel hydraulic enthusiast Andrew Vines takes a retrospective pictorial look at all of the classes of locomotives that were built for the Western Region of British Railways. Destined to have short lives in service, they have been the subject of much discussion and interest since their demise and have achieved near mythical status in the minds of some enthusiasts.
This book does not repeat the several detailed histories that have been written on these locomotives, but rather gives an informed commentary and much information on what they were about, where they operated and the types of traffic that they handled. The photographs have with a few exceptions not been seen in print before. They feature the work of some well known photographers, but also many unknown recorders who troubled to point their cameras at what was then the largely unloved modern part of a rapidly changing scene.
128 pages hardback.

Geoff Kent starts a useful guide to building, upgrading and detailing 4mm scale wagons for OO, EM and P4/S4 gauges.

This book covers open wagons, including traffic, mineral and hopper types to many different designs. Geoff demonstrates how to use and modify kits to create accurate models of wagons to slightly different designs or for special purposes. Prototype photographs are used to show how wagons really looked and most interestingly, just how small a 16-ton pile of iron ore really is.
86 pages of useful project ideas and practical demonstrations described and illustrated.

This series is recommended for 4mm scale wagon builders, helping you build a distinctive and unique models from plastic and metal kits, progressing to 'kit bashing' and straightforward scratch building projects to model specific prototypes. The projects and techniques can easily be transferred into other scales, making the series a very useful reference for modellers working in other scales to create realistic wagons.

Written by Ian Pope and Paul Karau this two-volume series provides an excellent record of the Great Westerns' Forest of Dean branches.

Volume two covers the branches in the Forest of Dean, starting with the Churchway branch from Bilson on the Cinderford line. Next the Whimsey branch is covered, including the interesting goods yard at Whimsey, later the site of Berry Wiggins depot and the Admiratly use of the Hawthorns tunnel during WW2.

Wild Swan LMS Lineside Handbook Part One - Anderson & Twells 9781905184316
The LMS Lineside Handbook provides the LMS modeller with an extensively illustrated reference to the stations, buildings, signage and lineside equipment of the LMS railway.

Part one covers stations, crossings, station lamps, nameboards and a vast range of signage is visible in context. Several structures are illustrated with photographs and drawings providing a sample of small station buildings, station canopys with details of brackets and footbridges. These can easily be adapted  by the modeller to suit their own layout while retaining the essential 'house style'.

112 pages, A4 format, softback.

Wild Swan LMS Lineside Handbook Part Two - Anderson & Twells 9781905184637
The LMS Lineside Handbook provides the LMS modeller with an extensively illustrated reference to the lineside signage, and station platform equipment of the LMS railway.

Part two covers a range of lineside and station signs, including cast iron weight limit and trespass signs, followed by a vast selection of platform fixtures, covering timetable and poster boards, platform numbvering and station bench seats. Finally there is a section devoted to platform barrows and trolleys which will be sure to provide enough for the porters of even a large station without duplication!
The book is copiously illustrated with views of LMS stations, many showing much more than just the subject, allowing a period scene to be created. Drawings and diagrams of the major and standard fixtures allow other features to be gauged against them and placed together to create an atmospheric scene.

102 pages, A4 format, softback.