Narrow Gauge Adventure: The story of The Craig & Mertonford Railway

Thanks to Kev Robertson's recent blog post about NARROW GAUGE ADVENTURE: THE STORY OF THE CRAIG & MERTONFORD RAILWAY by P D Hancock reminded me that I had read this book when it was first published, and that it – and his articles in model railway magazines – was the reason why I became enamoured of narrow gauge model railways.

As a result, I did a search on the internet and found a second-hand copy of the book on sale at a reasonable price ... and bought it! It was delivered last Saturday and I have spend several hours engrossed in reading it ... and getting lots of ideas for my future layouts!

The book is split into eleven chapters and three appendices:

• 1. The idea is born
• 2. An historical digression
• 3. The early years
• 4. The year of the trams
• 5. The middle years
• 6. Putting back the clock
• 7. The second Craigshire
• 8. I like locomotives
• 9. The narrow-gauge locomotives
• 10. The standard-gauge locomotives
• 11. The Craigshire landscape
• Appendix 1: Operating timetable
• Appendix 2: Rolling Stock
• Appendix 3: Things that might have been

The book contains lots of inspiring monochrome photographs and drawings, including several maps that show the various stages of the development of the layout and some intriguing ones that show what the layout might have looked out had circumstance been different.

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NARROW GAUGE ADVENTURE: THE STORY OF THE CRAIG & MERTONFORD RAILWAY was written by P D Hancock and published in 1975 by Peco Publications and Publicity Ltd (SBN 900586 44 4).