Roving around the Western Region in the 1970s and 1980s often meant making your way to Reading or Bristol Temple Meads before branching out further afield - South Wales and vast swathes of the West Country were within reach, and intrepid young photographers could reach favoured locations such as the sea wall at Dawlish, or seek out somewhere a little more unusual.

With a range of brilliantly evocative and previously unpublished photographs taken during the 1970s and 1980s, Andy Gibbs offers a superb portrait of the region during this time, allowing the reader to enjoy this interesting period in British railway history in all its grubbiness.