Category: New Book

A Railwayman’s View – The Photographs of Ronnie Gee
by E.M. Johnson & I.Simpson

We have now launched our first book, A Railwayman’s View – The Photographs of Ronnie Gee. The book has 96 pages of Colour and Black & White images taken by Ronnie during his time on the railway in the South Manchester area. Some profits will be donated to a leading UK Cancer Charity who looked after Ronnie towards the end of his life.

The book features steam and electric traction between Manchester London Road (now Piccadily), Stockport and Wilmslow stations. Ronnie had a knack of being in the right place at the right time. There are some real gems within the book. The distance between Crewe and Stockport/Manchester was just right for running-in turns from recently outcropped locomotives from Crewe Works. We featured one such photograph in a previous post.

The photographs are of a high quality, and have been restored to their full glory, despite being nearly 70 years old in some cases. It is hoped that this will be the first volume of Ronnie’s photographs. His collection totals 2,500 images, some from the 1940s, and some that were taken in his last days as Station Master of Stockport Station.

Pricing and Ordering

The book can be ordered through our website for £15.95 plus £4.00 Posting & Packing. We will ship to most parts of the world (already to Australia), so if you don’t see an option for you then please contact us at ellybellypublications@outlook.com. Payment is through PayPal. If you don’t have an account then there is an option to pay by Credit or Debit Card too.

This book has been a long time in the making. Both Eddie and I are very pleased with the production of the book and feel we have done Ronnie proud…

This magnificent view of “Rebuilt Scot” No.46137 ‘The Prince of Wales’s Volunteers (South Lancashire)’ sees the engine “hard at it” as it storms past Longsight carriage sheds on April 30th 1959 at the head of the 12-coach 2.00 pm express to London Euston. The photograph forms the Front Cover of the first in a series of books titled “A Railwayman’s View”. This first book showcases a snippet of the fine images taken by Ronnie Gee, a railwayman for nearly 50 years in the Manchester area. His local knowledge and ear to the ground meant he captured some

A good head of steam and a hearty exhaust makes for a fine picture, though doubtless such emissions would be frowned upon by today’s environmentalists!  In its 41-year lifespan 46137 had spent three periods at Longsight (9A). The loco is into its last allocation to the Manchester shed; next year, on April 30th, it will be transferred across the city to 26A – Newton Heath. Looking closely at this scene and Longsight is changing: notice the LNWR semaphores – sturdy sentinels that stood here for so long, their place now taken by BR semaphores and they, too, will soon disappear. Just visible in the distance – an early DMU heads along towards London Road.

One cannot help but think that Ronnie “tipped the wink” to the engine crew to put on a special display for his benefit. Whatever else, this striking image of a steam locomotive hard at work with a lengthy train  – 12 carriages are strung out behind the tender – is one of Ronnie’s finest. Significantly, the year 1959 would see the beginning of the end of steam power over this route. On July 7th Ronnie was out with his camera at East Didsbury station, there to capture D217 en route to Longsight shed and the first of the Type 4s to arrive there. Thus would begin an interregnum that would see the arrival of electric traction from September the following year.

The Cover photo shown above is from the forthcoming book “A Railwayman’s View – The Photographs of Ronnie Gee” by Eddie Johnson and Ian Simpson. There are some fabulous photographs of the railway scene from Manchester London Road station (now Manchester Piccadilly) south to Wilmslow, via Stockport and the Styal lines.

The books will be available from our website, subscribe to this blog for news about this and other upcoming books.