The Last Years of Steam Around North Wales: From the Photographic Archive of Ellis James-Robertson

Description

Robert Ellis James-Robertson (always known as Ellis) was born in Wales but lived at Worcester from the mid-1950s and travelled extensively around the country building up a large railway collection. In the 1960s a few of Ellis's photographs were published in books and magazines and the credit 'R. E. James-Robertson' may be familiar to some. This book of mainly unpublished colour and black & white photographs has been created entirely from Ellis's North Wales archives, it will appeal to railway enthusiasts, modellers, and those interested in local history. The time period covered is from the mid-1950s through to the mid-1960s with steam being the predominant motive power. Much of North Wales is covered and in addition to BR standard-gauge lines, the narrow-gauge Penrhyn and Padarn slate systems are also seen. Ellis and his wife Norah celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary in 2013, and Ellis passed on in April 2015 aged 92. Their daughters, Louisa and Fiona, contacted film-maker and author Michael Clemens whose late father was a friend of Ellis's. Ellis's collection lives on today at films shows around the country given by the author and now in this second of a number of books using his photographic archive.

The author and his late father in the 1950s & 1960s lived in Worcestershire but travelled all over Britain, from Penzance to the north of Scotland, filming many now long closed railways and the steam locomotives that worked on them. The movie film collection, the largest of its kind in the UK, has been released by the author on over thirty videos starting in the 1990s. The first volume of still photographs was published in 2007 and this is the author's thirteenth book.