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Robert started this business from a back bedroom in our Chiswick flat in 1974 and it has kept us harmlessly occupied now for fifty years. That seems enough, our joints are rusting and striding about carrying huge boxes of books no longer appeals. Reluctantly we pulled down the shutters for the last time at the end of August 2025.

We are no longer open to casual callers but are happy to open by appointment.
We shall continue to open by appointment while we still have sufficient stock for it to be worthwhile.
The sale discounts still apply!
For an appointment e-mail books@roberthumm.co.uk, or try phoning 01780 766266, we are still often working around the shop

Web site sales - the end is nigh
Online sales have been granted a few weeks reprieve while the site is remodelled, but will cease before the end of April, new final date to be announced later.
Don't forget - the web site applies an across the board 30% discount.


Retirement Sale - All Stock Must Go
Thousands of good clean railway books, British and foreign, booklets, time tables, bound periodicals.
Sale discounts for customers visiting the shop:
Old and recent : 50% off marked prices
New : 25% off cover prices
Plus many special bargains.


Robert Humm & Co specialises in rare and out-of-print books about railways, other transport and industrial history. We also stock a wide selection of new books on railways.
For over a quarter of a century our shop was in the former station master's house at Stamford railway station but with the end of our lease there we moved to 59 Scotgate, Stamford PE9 2YQ in 2016.

Our Scotgate shop is convenient for the town centre, parking, the A1 Great North Road and the railway - Stamford station, with an hourly service on the cross-country Birmingham to East Anglia railway, is ten minutes walk. Stamford itself is a handsome town with fine architecture, excellent shopping and restaurants - it is well worth a day out in its own right.

We offer a mail order service and welcome enquiries by phone, post or e-mail. Our knowledgeable and helpful staff are always happy to help.This is not primarily an on-line business, however most of our new books and a little selection of our second-hand stock are listed on this site; most of the listings can be ordered on-line.
So far as the new books go, we have stopped re-stocking and much that was formerly listed is no longer available from us. Everything out of stock has now been weeded out and the pared-down New Books sections will reward a browse because there is quite a lot there which is now out of print, still at publishers' original prices and now discounted as well.

Best Selling Items

The WD Austerity 2-8-0.

£34.99

The BR Record.
Hooper.
Very large, 300 pages, photo illustrations. **Everything you could possibly want to know about WD Austerity 2-8-0s during their BR service: boilers, tenders, allocations, accidents, liveries and disposal. A tour de force.
find out more

Last Levers On The Fylde.

£15.00

A commemoration and celebration of railway operation in the age of mechanical signalling.
Littleworth and others.
Very large, 192 pages, photo illustrations (some colour), maps, many signalling diagrams, appendices, glazed boards. ** Detailed analysis of traffic and signalling in the Fylde, up to the 1960s; includes many photos of boxes and equipment, time table extracts, etc. Remarkable value.
find out more

Signal Boxes On Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Lines : North And West Of Manchester. Part Two.

£15.00

L&YR Central District Lines, Clifton to Bacup and Castleton to Bolton via Bury, Manchester (Irk Valley) to Radcliffe, Rochdale to Bacup and branches.
Littleworth.
Very large, 148 pages, photo illustrations (some colour), map, many signalling diagrams, soft back. ** This work is in two parts. This second part covers lines 6 - 10, which formed part of the Central District. The information for each box includes location, details of the equipment, brief history and opening times. For many boxes there is also one or more signalling diagram. For Part 1 - which included the introductory sections and covered lines 1 - 5A, which formed part of the L&Ys Western District - see SS3068.
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Signal Boxes On Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Lines : North And West Of Manchester. Part One.

£15.00

L&YR Western District Lines, Salford to Wigan (No 1) via Atherton, Salford to Euxton via Bolton and branches.
Littleworth.
Very large, 114 pages, photo illustrations (some colour), map, many signalling diagrams, soft back. ** This work is in two parts. The present volume includes the introductory sections and covers lines 1 - 5A, which formed part of the L&Ys Western District. Part Two (see SS3304) covers lines 6 - 10, which formed part of the Central District. The information for each box includes location, details of the equipment, brief history and opening times. For many boxes there is also one or more signalling diagram.
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Belfast And County Down Railway.

£25.00


Coakham, D.
Very large, 256 pages, photo illustrations, maps, track plans, loco and rolling stock drawings. Soft back. **A comprehensive history handsomely produced at a very fair price.
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The Louth, Mablethorpe And Willoughby Loop.

£9.00

Ludlam, A J.
Oakwood, 1987.
Octavo, 64 pages + photo plates, maps, card covers, VG. LP162.
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© 2016 Robert Humm & Co