Michael Welch has authored a number of colour albums , particularly focussing on the former Southern and Western regions of British Railways. ‘Diesels on the Western’ is his latest and if this genre is to your liking you will love this book.

Welch has collected photographs from a range of photographers to illustrate all the diesel locomotives, railcars, shunters, DMUs and HSTs that have graced the Western Region.

The popular ‘Western’ class is given particularly good coverage. A variety of liveries that these locomotives carried during their lives is also recorded.

As I have come to expect from this publisher (Capital Transport) the printing, layout and colour is first class. There is not a dud amongst the pages, though just a teeny niggle is the use of the same location on consecutive pages a couple of times. I am sure this could have been avoided with a different locality used to give maximum variety.

The photo captions are full, extensive and brimming with information..

Clearly there is scope for further volumes covering other regions of Britain and hopefully this will be the case.

These books don't come cheap but they do come recommended!