Ruston & Hornsby Diesel Locomotive Album.

Written by Andrew Neale and published by Plateway Press, you know that this is going to be a good book. The early history of Ruston, Proctor & Co. Ltd and Richard Hornsby & Sons is covered before the book concentrates on those diesel locomotives, both standard and narrow gauge, produced after the two firms amalgamated. That the book is well written should go without saying, as is the fact that the photographs are superbly reproduced (mostly full or half-page) with informative captions. Photos are split between official works photos and photos of locos at work, preserved locos are left out, which is understandable as many 'preserved' diesels end up being modified/mutilated by their new owners. I did find it a shame that a few of the photos have been used elsewhere, although not as well reproduced as they are in this book.
A nice touch is that the dust jacket is printed in an approximation of the shade of green used on the early locos, handy for us modellers. A bibliography is also included, something that I like to see in any book.

One puzzling omission is any mention of the five 165DE 0-6-0 locos supplied to British Railways Western Region in the 50's for permament way work, arguably the best known standard gauge Rustons after the 07s (a photo of D2986 is included), and the IRS book on those locos (The PWM's by A.J. Booth) is not covered in the bibliography.
However, the book is of the high standard that Plateway and Andrew Neale are well known for, and therefore highly recommended.

Ruston & Hornsby Diesel Locomotive Album, Andrew Neale, Plateway Press, ISBN 9781871980639

Paul.