Published Tempus Publishing, Stroud, 14th March 2000, Hardback ISBN No. 0 7524 1719 3, out of print November 2000. Softback November 2000 ISBN No 0 7524 2104 2. Revised paperback edition published by Amberley Publishing Stroud 8th February 2010 ISBN 9781 84868 505 5.
To order:
PRIVATE ORDERS: Via any good bookseller. I recommend Douglas Blades. Or via the hotlinks to Amazon.co.uk from this on line review in Model Railway Express-Mag.
Or for personally signed copies http://www.specialistauctions.com/auctiondetails.php?id=1030956 where both the book and some of the original pieces can be sourced from myself.
To Western Scottish Waters is the first solo authorship full length manuscript from Robert Forsythe to be published. It is a hardback, 160 pages illustrated in monochrome with an additional 14 page colour section. Initial price was £19.99. The volume mobilises three areas from the extensive collections of Robert and Fiona Forsythe. These include historic postcard views, our own photography from 1973 and, most significantly of all, material from our collection of transport publicity. Much of this is rarely seen nowadays and the selections cover the rail and ship routes encompassing the Firth of Clyde and the Western Isles. Caledonian and Highland Railway guides, the MacBraynes Royal Route, the Skye ferries, the Glen Sannox, Columba and Maid of the Loch, and the West Highland Railway are amongst the themes brought to life via the contemporary material that was employed to sell their charms to prospective customers.
There are many books on the subject but this one offers a novel take. Robert Forsythe is qualified to provide this angle not just through the collections he can access, but through his time as curator to the Scottish Maritime Museum in 1986-1989 and through his qualification in industrial archaeology taken at the Ironbridge Institute, whilst his wife Fiona is a librarian. Appropriately they met in the Denny Ship Model Test Tank at Dumbarton featured in this volume. Many of the items in the book are now in the National Railway Museum Search Engine.
Should any reader of this page be aware of a review of this volume which has not been listed in the reviews noted on our main bibliography pages, details of such would be gratefully received.
What the reviewers say:
Robert Forsythe's text and captions are readable, detailed and interesting, and the range of publicity and tourist material shown is tremendous. Archive June 2000.
This is an innovative and remarkable book........The book is a splendid and novel look......The overall result is to quote Captain Peter Macfarlane 'chust sublime'. Backtrack July 2000.
Robert Forsythe comes up with gems of wisdom on every page...........in this extremely well researched book which will bring the cries of seagulls to your ears........ Best of British July 2000.
The subject is a fascinating one and this is a book to be dipped into again and again. Readers will be encouraged to re-evaluate the importance of printed publicity material........Ships Monthly August 2000.
The full text of a review now follows:
The full title of this volume, "To Western Scottish Waters, by Rail and Steamer to the Isles," is a fair description of the content, but does very little to prepare you for the treasure chest of nostalgia you find between the covers.
It is impossible to travel Scotland's magnificent western seaboard today without wondering how people got around before motor cars were commonplace and the considerably more recent network of roads on which you can drive them in relative comfort and ease was built. Robert N. Forsythe's superb book means that you need wonder no longer. It allows a modern generation of travellers beguiled by their experience of the highlands and islands to learn more about how their predecessors travelled in what for many was, and still is, the most beautiful corner of the globe. And as you delve deeper into the book it is difficult not to wonder whether sometimes "progress" might have diminished the experience we enjoy today, though not always: travellers no longer face the possibility of sharing their passage to the isles on a small steamer with a flock of sheep.
The author was for a number of years in the 1980s the curator of the Scottish Maritime Museum, and has amassed a large personal collection of transport publicity literature. This is effectively deployed to copiously illustrate the book, alongside early postcard views and the author's own photography since the 1970s. The book commences with the story of steamer services. It then moves on to an account of the development of MacBraynes after 1939, with a particular focus on the 1964 Columba, which with her sister ships launched a new era of car ferries. Today the Columba can still be seen sailing these waters, as the luxury cruise ship Hebridean Princess.
In some ways the most fascinating aspects of the book are those dealing with the least known aspects of its subject. Operators such as Western Ferries are covered in detail, alongside cruises offered on Loch Awe, and the "Puffers" which provided a lifeline to many remote coastal communities until fairly recent times. The story then moves to the development of the railways in the highlands, and the way their services often linked to those of loch or island steamers. Other chapters focus on the development of car ferry services; and passenger services on Loch Lomond. This is a book to browse at your leisure, confident in the knowledge that every page is going to deliver unexpected insights and large doses of nostalgia. .........Undiscovered Scotland February 2011.
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