Southern Way No 27 will be available in July 2014. Our ever-popular mix of steam / electric / history / reminiscences as well as the usual features abound and will delight all enthusiasts of the Southern Region. This issue concentrates on infrastructure, stations, yards and civil engineering, subjects we know from our postbag are ever popular especially with the modeller. Look out then for a veritable feast in both colour and black and white.

The Class 50 locomotives were built by English Electric between 1967 and 1968, and 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the locomotive's debut. Fifty examples were built, and were initially used to haul express passenger trains on the West Coast Main Line between Crewe and Scotland. Class 50s were nicknamed 'Hoovers' by rail enthusiasts because of the distinctive sound made by the air-filters originally fitted. The Class 50s were later moved to services in the south west of England, primarily on the mainline from London to Exeter, and were eventually retired from service in 1994. In the late-1970s BR was persuaded to name the class 50s after Royal Navy Vessels with notable records in the First and Second World Wars, and in January 1978 50035 was named Ark Royal by the captain and crew of then current aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal. The rest of the fleet was named during the course of the next few years. The Class 50 has always been popular with railway enthusiasts, and 17 of the original 50-strong fleet are currently preserved. This Manual provides a fascinating insight into the design, manufacture, operation and restoration of the Class 50.

For the latest No 30 edition of the Southern Way, the editor has something very special in store for EMU enthusiasts - the fact that this issue is due for release in April 2015 may be something of a clue...but fans will just have to watch this space. Otherwise, the latest issue includes the usual multifarious mixture of steam, infrastructure, reminiscences and what can only be described as the downright unusual. Just when you thought there was nothing new to say about the Southern Railway, a whole new selection of fascinating facts and photographs is released to delight all fans of the Southern Way series.

A luxury facsimile edition of Bradshaw’s Handbook of 1863, the book that inspired the BBC television series ‘Great British Railway Journeys’. The original Bradshaw's guides had been well known to Victorian travellers and were produced when the British railway network was at its peak and as tourism by rail became essential. It was the first national tourist guide specifically organised around railway journeys, and this luxuryleatherbound facsimile edition is a true collector’s item, offering a glimpse through the carriage window at a Britain long past.

This book explores the phenomenal resources dedicated to understanding and encouraging passengers to consume travel from 1900 to 1939, analysing how place and travel were presented for sale. Using the Great Western Railway as a chief case study, as well as a range of its competitors both on and off the rails, Alexander Medcalf unravels the complex and ever-changing processes behind corporate sales communications. This volume analyses exactly how the company pictured passengers in the countryside, at the seaside, in the urban landscape and in the company's vehicles. This thematic approach brings transport and business history thoroughly in line with tourism and leisure history as well as studies in visual culture.