Over the years Ian Allan Publishing has enjoyed great success with reprinting the classic Combined Volume abc titles from the golden days of Britain's railways, a time before the Beeching cuts saw vast swathes of the railway network sadly consigned to the history book.
This new reprint of the combined volume for 1954 is certain to be extremely popular.
It covers a time of great change, when Britain's railways had been nationalised for six years and many of the relatively small and aged classes inherited from the Big Four companies were rapidly disappearing.
Standard steam locomotives were being constructed and, more pertinently for the future of the railway industry, large numbers of diesel and electric multiple-units were being introduced.
The last great class of steam locomotive to be built for Britain's railways - the Class 9F 2-10-0 - was first introduced in 1954, but the long-term future of steam traction was already in doubt.
Its death-knell was sounded the following year with the announcement of BR's Modernisation Plan. The abc reprints have always found a ready market amongst those who were avid enthusiastsin their youth and who look back on their adolescence with great nostalgia.
For a broader audience this book represents an excellent source of reference material, providing a magnificent snapshot of all the locomotives operating on Britain's railways at this significant moment in time.
As such they are particularly useful guides for modellers, offering vital information essential for the recreation of the railway network as it existed at the time.