Majorca Railway Booklist

Reference and further reading

· "EL FERROCARRIL A MALLORCA La Via del Progres" (The Railway of Mallorca. The way of progress [?]) by Nicolau S. Canellas Serrano. A new, very thick, softback book with lots and lots of pictures of the Majorcan railways, old and new. Unfortunately the text is in Mallorquin or Catalan so the book will only appeal to very serious enthusiasts. I'm still waiting for my copy but will elaborate further after I've read it. So far I've only seen a copy, briefly, but have committed myself to the likely cost of €30+ !! I'm afraid I gave up reading after a few pages, the pictures are good but don't justify buying the book unless you absolutely MUST HAVE everything published on the Majorcan Railways

· "Ferrocarriles de Sóller y Mallorca" (The Majorca and Sóller Railways) by Jose Maria Valero and Eustaquio de la Cruz. A beautifully produced, large-sized hardback. Although a Spanish publication the text is in dual language. A number of the photographs are in colour, and there are many very interesting early pictures of the islands railways. Thoroughly recommended, if you can find it, I finally managed to buy a copy in the Relay bookstall at Palma airport in September 2005.

· "The Railways and Tramways of Majorca" by Giles Barnabe (Plateway Press). An excellent 128 page softback publication covering all of the railway systems on the island, including long closed tram lines and independent railways. The book is well illustrated and includes station track diagrams and drawings of buildings, locos and rolling stock. September 2003 - Giles' new book, entitled "Rails Through Majorca", has been published this month by Plateway Press. The ISBN number is 1 871980 51 8 . Plateway press can be found on www.plateway.co.uk The book has 248 pages with more than 200 photographs, maps, diagrams and scale drawings.

· "A Layman’s History of the Steam Railways of Mallorca" by Lindsay H. R. Fisher. A 68-page paperback by a British expatriate resident of Mallorca, this little book contains a number of interesting photographs. I have my doubts about the locomotive list, the author having found some "extra" locos, apparently by counting heavy re builds as new engines, and there seem to be a couple of other mistakes in the text, but there is also a lot of useful information. My copy was purchased direct from the author who lives in Puerto Alcudia. July 2003 - now available from Platform 5.

· "The Iron Road to Sóller" by Peter G. Clayton. A paperback which describes itself as a ‘Traveller’s Guide covering the Sóller Railway and Puerto Sóller Tram route. Although brief, it is interesting and includes a number of photographs, some in colour. Peter Clayton has a number of copies of the book which he has made available at the special price of £6, including UK p&p.; If you're interested please e-mail me (remove MAJORCA from the address before sending - I'm getting far too much spam, a lot of which is intolerably offensive) and I'll put you in touch with him.

· "Mediterranean Island Railways" by P. B. Kalla-Bishop. Published in 1970 and I believe now long out of print (but possibly available here), the Mallorca railways receive a certain amount of coverage along with numerous other railway systems on Mediterranean islands. In my (Barry's) opinion the coverage of the Mallorcan railways in this book is not sufficient to justify the likely high price UNLESS you absolutely must possess everything available on the subject or would be interested in the railways on the other Mediterranean islands.

· "La Companyia dels Ferrocarrils de Mallorca"
Author: J Pere Brunet Estarelles
Publisher: Institut D'Estudis Baleárics
ISBN: 84-870-26-346
Date: 06/1994
Price: 2000 ESP
Pages: 250
Language: Catalan
- comes highly recommended by Carlos Ortigosa Rausch (see April 2000 newsletter).
See also May 2000 newsletter (watch this space !!) which contains an article featuring the author

· "Prodigioso Tren de Sóller" by Manuel Maristany and Josep Miquel (see picture above). Spanish text, published 1997 ISBN: 84 - 922621-0-9 (cost me 3,500 pesetas in Sóller in 1998)

· The video "Peninsular Steam" (Videolines) includes a short piece of archive film from the steam era of the FCM.

· "Recuerdo del Vapor en La Vía Estrecha Española"(Spanish Narrow Gauge Steam Remembered) by Lawrence G. Marshall. A hardback book concentrating mainly on the narrow-gauge railways, both passenger carrying and industrial, of the Spanish mainland but with some terrific black and white photos of the steam locos of the FCM taken by the author in 1957. There is a special offer if you'd like to buy this book, which is printed in Spain, direct from the author at a discounted price of £23 including post and packing (normal price £29) - just print out and fill in this form and send it to him with your cheque.

· "Mallorca mit dem Zug entdecken" a pocket-sized handbook, published by Geranova (ISBN 3-7654-7180-1), has 144 pages in full colour and covers both the existing and closed railways quite extensively although, because the text is German, I can't guarantee 100% accuracy but I hope to have a review from Mike Kaben soon. Let me just say that I am highly impressed and only wish it were larger and in English and that I had taken all the photos and written the book myself !! The photos are very good - a bit on the small side but there are an awful lot of them, with shots of the railways from places I've not seen used before !! Available from Platform 5 and Midland Counties.

Earlier this month (October 2011) I found a new book "Railways in Mallorca" by Martin Bairstow. I haven't read it yet but what I've looked at so far looks very interesting.

Today I bought (for all of £1 !!) a copy of the book "A Layman's History of the Steam Railways of Mallorca"
by Lindsay H R Fisher - more on this at a later date.

It has been some time since I did much compiling of the codes for this type of web-page so "I may be some time".

Booksellers on the internet worth trying are:-
Nick Tozer
John F. Kappler, Transport Emporium
BookFinder.com
The website of Platform 5 Publishing Ltd. is currently (October 2011) not on the net but can be phoned on 0114 255 8000 (UK) or +44 114-255-8000 (from overseas) Fax +44(0) 114-255-2471 also try http://www.platform5.com/

The major part of this list was supplied by my friend Cliff Thomas, who now writes for a number of other British Railway magazines, and was written for an article in a sadly long-defunct magazine, "International Railway Modelling"