MGR Coal Trains

AUTHOR: Mike Rhodes

PUBLISHER: Amberley Publishing

ISBN: 978-1-39810-888-2

PRICE: £15.99

WEBSITE: www.amberley-books.com

THE CONCEPT of MGR (Merry Goround) coal trains was developed during the 1960s for coal-fired power stations to be equipped with rail sidings that would allow coal traffic to be moved by rail from collieries directly into power stations, which at the time consumed huge quantities of coal when producing electricity.

How times change. Since the introduction of MGR trains, the coal industry has all but gone entirely from the UK and most of the coal-fired power stations have also now been removed from the landscape, as energy suppliers look to more environmentally-friendly options.

However, the transportation of coal between colliery and power station was an important aspect of the railway for many years and Mike Rhode’s latest book takes a great overview of these trains and the varied range of traction that has worked them.

The author is a well-established photographer who has spent a long time at the lineside capturing everyday scenes that have now been consigned to the history books. As with all Amberley photo books, this volume is a softback printed on good-quality paper. The photos are well chosen and include informative and detailed captions, but I couldn’t help but notice the vast majority of them appear to have a bit of a greyish tinge, which means they appear to be a little darker than they probably should be. This doesn’t spoil the book too much, but the reproduction does appear to be darker in this volume than other Amberley books I have recently reviewed.

If you like heavy freight traffic, then this book will be of interest to you. As with all Amberley books, it is priced at a very reasonable £15.99.