This book splits roughly equally between the history of the iron mines of the Brendon Hills, and the standard gauge railway built to carry the ores 11.5 miles to the port of Watchet on the Bristol Channel. The amount of detail on the various mines, their workings and their infrastructure is considerable, as is the background information on the companies and their employees. The railway, opened in the late 1850s, was split in to two operational sections by the 0.5 mile Cowberrow incline with a gradient of 1 in 4.  A passenger service of sorts was operated using archaic locos and coaches - the line’s last locomotive being an ex-Metropolitan Railway 4-4-0 tank which lasted until operations ceased around 1908, although in 1912 part of the line was used to demonstrate the Angus Automatic Brake. Overall a fascinating and many faceted book; the detail in the text, photographs and especially the drawings here is extraordinary, and this book represents quite exceptional value. 416 pages. 400 illustrations (B&W and colour). 150 maps and drawings. Hardbound. Lightmoor Press