Clare and I started the blog in early 2015, partly to keep customers informed during the protracted move of our book business from Station House to Scotgate, and partly to republish some of my railway articles that seemed to be of lasting value.
So much for good intentions. By 2018 the pressures of other work, including Clare’s highly successful #whatstation identification programme on Twitter/X, led to the blog being abandoned.
Now that the shop and the book sales website have both closed and we are retired from the booktrade there should be a little more time available. Revival of the blog under the new title Through The Carriage Window should provide some mental stimulation, much enjoyment, and a way of keeping in touch with many friends and former customers around the world.
A fresh start therefore, and we aim to cast the net wider. We shall continue the serialisation of earlier magazine articles, many of which we think deserve a wider audience. There are 26 volumes of Railway Travels And Observations, nearly all untouched, going back to 1961. Our interests include railway architecture, bridges, railway hotels and public houses, lighthouses, pleasure piers, country houses and gardens, the lives of railway writers and artists, book collecting, Victorian and Edwardian buildings, art deco style, ports and harbours, and urban landscape.