All of you armchair gricers and those who have visited or wish they had visited the last few real working steam lines in the world may be interested in what John Raby's Linesiding Tours got up to in the last 10 years.

As a lockdown project, I've documented the first 10 years of Linesiding Tours from 2011 until 2020 (although effectively 2011 - 2019) starting from Shibanxi, China in 2011 and ending (so far) in Romania in 2019. Along the way, we saw the last trains at Rongshan, the disastrous reduction in steam use in Java, the decline at Sandaoling and the last conventional industrial steam in Europe both standard and narrow gauge in Bosnia (which still survives).

If you would like to look at decent photos of steam and other traction, standard and narrow gauge taken in Bosnia, China, Java Indonesia and Romania over the last 10 years, two e-Books are available to download. And, here's the good part, the downloads are free if you pledge to help a heritage railway of your choice survive the Corona virus.

All you have to do is email john@rabylee.uk with your pledge to support a heritage railway and you will receive links to 2 x 100 page plus e-Books Linesiding Tours Part 1 2011-2015 and Part 2 2016-2020 (view as pdf).

This is something to enjoy during lockdown.