Has anyone ever come across the publication Off The Rails ?
I read it some years ago, it was written & photographed by the Eastleigh Crane driver, think his name was Bill Bishop.

Some great pictures as I remember & some good breakdown tales, well worth a read if you can find a copy

Found a copy on ebay
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Railway-Accidents ... _500wt_922

Indeed this is one of the "must have" books for any crane enthusiast! It was, as you say, written by Bill Bishop, and many of the photos were supplied by S C Townroe. Bill Bishop, who sadly is no longer with us, started his career with the Fratton breakdown gang and later moved to Eastleigh. The crane he drove most was the 36-ton crane DS35, the LSWR's first Ransomes & Rapier steam crane, which was based upon the (preserved) GWR No 2 crane of 1908.

Fortunately for crane enthusiasts "Off The Rails" was printed in fairly large quantities by the original publisher (Kingfisher) and later reprinted at least once as a Book Club Edition, so it is fairly easy and not too expensive to buy a copy (the print and photo reproduction quality is higher in the Kingfisher Publication edition that the BCA version).

The other essential book for the crane enthusiast is the much rarer (and less easily readable) "Railway Steam Cranes" by John S Brownlie. This was privately published and it is likely that between 500 and 1000 copies only were printed, with the result that it tends to fetch ridiculous prices on the second-hand market (in the region of £80 to £100 now).

Yes, "Off the Rails" is a fascinating book, and not very expensive either. I bought two copies (one for myself and another for a friend) and they cost about £8 for the Kingfisher copy and £6 for the BCA copy. I must admit, though, that my tired old eyes couldn't really differentiate between the quality of the photos.

In case you haven't spotted it, on our website is a large Bibliography of books, magazines and papers that carry at least some reference to breakdown cranes. I must acknowledge the fact that most of the items listed were brought to my attention by the ever-helpful Roger.

[I'm sure Chris and Roger won't mind that I've moved this topic into the 'public' area of the forum so that all visitors can see it.]

There is also a booklet called
Carlisle's Crane Makers.
The Cowans Sheldon Story. by an Alan Earnshaw.
This is a Nostalgia Road publication
ISBN 1-903016-04-5 priced at 9.95 but I think I got mine for less in a sell off some years ago.

It gives some history of the firm plus a number of works photos of CS products ranging through Breakdown cranes to Turntables and On track plant.

_________________
Bryan

http://www.nymr-pway.co.uk/

This is (in my opinion) a rather disappointing book, since it is absolutely riddled with errors! The photos are interesting, but many of the captions are completely wrong. Shame.