Books in the Southern Way Series series

A chance opportunity in late 2008 enabled the author to access several hundred hitherto unseen views of the Southern Railway in the period 1939-45. A collection which taken as a whole reveals damage and destruction on a scale it is hard to imagine. Yet through all this the railway continued operating, providing a vital link in a national system, which had it failed, could well have been the precursor to unimaginable horror. The Press cameras of the period recorded what they were allowed to take; these photographs show what actually occurred.The book presents no romantic approach. Graphic scenes of damage together with contemporary records of tragedy and heroism blend together to reveal what can only be described as ''The British Spirit.'' The photographs are unbelievable, the story breathtaking. Wartime Southern looks in greater detail at the railways in this period than ever before.

For ''The Southern Way'' to succeed however it was essential that not only sales, but also new and unpublished material was available. We are delighted to report that the response to both has been remarkable.Accordingly in ''The Southern Way Issue No. 2'' there are features on Southern Weed Killing Trains, Southern Shipping, the record of a Pupil at Eastleigh in the 1930s, reminiscences from Three Bridges, Pullman Camping Coaches and lots more.As before the majority of the material, both factual and illustrative will never have been seen before and this includes our regular ''Flashback'' and '' Permanent Way'' features.