| Preston-related
sites |
|
Ribble Steam Railway Discussion Forum |
Does
what it says on the tin! For discussion about all aspects of our
very own heritage line. |
| Marsh
End Railway |
A nice
website for anyone interested in Preston and/or model railways.
Andy's site is about a fictitious branch line in the Penwortham
area, which he has modelled. An imaginative "history" and
map section give a nice background to the layout. |
| Tunnel
Visions |
An
interesting art project website by Elaine Speight about the Miley
Tunnel. |
|
Preston &
District Model Railway Society |
Caters
for all scales and levels of ability. The Society's annual
Exhibition is held in January and is highly recommended for anyone
interested in railway modelling. |
| NEW
Longton Online |
Longton's
very own website, covering all aspects of the town, its people and
history. |
| Railway
Information and Societies |
| The
Sectional Appendix |
Brian
Robertson's excellent site based on the BR Sectional Appendix. It
contains a wealth of information about the rail network as it stood
in 1960, detailing stations, signal boxes, distances and line
speeds. |
| The
Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Society |
A
well-run society, which welcomes anyone with an interest in the
"Lanky". Their regular newsletters and other publications
are particularly good, and hold a large selection of historical
material about the L&YR. |
| The
London & North Western Railway Society |
The
society which covers the L&NWR in a similar way to the L&YRS.
As with that group, the L&NWRS produce some excellent
publications. |
| The
LMS-Patriot Project |
The home
of the project to recreate a lost class of locomotive. All the
Patriots (also known as "Baby Scots"), were, sadly,
scrapped in the 1960s, leaving the preservation movement without an
example of this popular and successful type. |
| The
Princess Royal Class Locomotive Trust |
Custodians
of 6233 Duchess of Sutherland. |
| Online
aerial photos & mapping
|
| Mario
Map |
Run by
Lancashire County Council, this site has a huge amount of
information, including modern and old OS maps, aerial photos from
the 1940s and 1960s as well as the present day. |
| Google |
Google
Earth is a nice toy, but I prefer to access their aerial photos via
the Google Maps page. The current images have a nasty join right
across the middle of the station! |
| Live
Local - Preston Station Aerial |
Microsoft
have Virtual Earth which is a clone of Google Earth. They also have
Live Local which is similar to Google Maps but has some nice extra
features such as the ability to see high-res source images which
haven't been mangled to produce the illusion of a satellite view.
The "Birds Eye View" option produces by far the best
aerial images of Preston. |
| Suppliers
of old maps |
| Old
Towns of England |
Although
some old OS maps have been reprinted over the years, it can be
difficult to find maps covering many areas. Chris at Old Towns has a
large collection of maps which are available as crisp digitally
restored A2 prints. |
| Photographs |
| NEW
Nettletea |
There
are several Ebay sellers who specialise in vintage railway
photographs, but some are more helpful than others. Allan "Nettletea"
Wood is amongst the best. |
| NEW
Deva-Bob |
Another
recommended Ebay photo seller. |
Digital
Rail Images
Trans-Pennine
West-coast
East-coast
Main Line
Steam
locomotives
British
Railways |
Neil
Dimmer has supplied several 1980s photos used elsewhere on this
site, but he also has a number of websites dedicated to various
railway subjects |
| Deltic
21 Photo Site |
Rob
Maynard's site has lots of nice photos - not only Deltics, but many
taken at Preston over the last few years. |
|
World Steam Locos and World Modern Traction Pictures |
Keith
Till has provided some interesting photos for this site, taken in
the 1970s. Keith's Fotopic site has an interesting selection of
photos across the railway spectrum. |
|
The Ian Birch Archive |
Just how
I remember it !
Ian has shared his photos of Preston in the early/mid 1980s. They
show just how busy it was back then with more blue locos than you
could shake a stick at! |
|
Carl Hodginson |
Carl has
a cracking fotopic site with photgraphs covering mainly the North
West over the last 20-odd years. There are many photos of Preston in
amongst them with an emphasis on the latter days of rail blue and
beyond. |
Recent
Photos from the North West
Old Rail Scene Scans |
Mike
Birtles has two galleries of photos which include some interesting
Preston shots. The first does what it says on the tin - recent
photos, mainly around Preston. The second gallery is from the BR
Blue era, and include some photos of Ladywell. More Preston photos
are on the way, I am told... |
| Railway
Book Suppliers |
| Martin
Bott |
Has a
book shop in Horwich, Bolton, but also has an excellent on-line
shop. |
| Nick
Tozer |
Another
good on-line book seller, based in Huddersfield, who also attends
model railway exhibitions. |