Bristol St Philip’s Marsh: The inside story of an HST depot is Stephen Jones’ story of time spent ‘on the inside’ at St Philip’s Marsh HST depot, Bristol from 1979 to 2001. Stephen was a trade electrician at SPM who, alongside others, was responsible for maintaining the fleet of Western Region HST sets through the good, and sometimes not so good, times. Although this book is very much a personal record, profusely illustrated with the author’s own images, it is also a record of a lifetime of railway service.
Written from the heart by a man ‘who was there’, this is a no holds barred description of how the fleet was operated and maintained. Stephen relates how, as time went on, corners were cut and that later, under privatisation, it was often a case of ‘reinventing the wheel’. In addition he reveals the birth into service of the remarkable Yeoman Class 59 engines and recounts some remarkable tales, with illustrations, having being present at the time.
770 colour photographs. Hardback. 312 pages.