WHEN you go on holiday this year don?t just pack your bucket and spade and the sun tan lotion.

For those occasional days when you want to escape from the beach, ensure you bring a tome that is invaluable not just to railway enthusiasts but families seeking to discover the delights of our heritage railways.

Now in its 24th edition, Railways Restored 2003 edited by Alan C Butcher (Ian Allan Publishing £12.99) lists and details the facilities and timetables of all the preserved railways in the country.

Effectively the Bible of the preservation movement, it is a must for any bookshelf as well as an essential travelling companion.

It provides a completely up-to-date and comprehensive listing of all locomotives displayed in each of the country?s steam centres and preserved railways.

It also lists information on rolling stock, special events, useful addresses and telephone numbers and much more.

There is nothing more irritating that making the effort to travel to a venue that is only open at specific times only to find it closed, or that you arrived ten minutes too late to catch the last train of the day ? which irritatingly departed mid-afternoon!

In for the first time is Midsomer Norton station ? based on the much celebrated former Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway ? where there are plans to return trains to this once famous trackbed.

For the fifth year running, Railways Restored has increased its usefulness by the inclusion of a 32 page supplement which gives train times, operational dates and other details ? information essential when considering a visit to a preserved line.

The West Country is featured with such gems as the Devon Railway Centre near Tiverton, Dartmoor Railway at Okehampton, South Devon Railway at Buckfastleigh, Plym Valley Railway at Plymouth; Paignton and Dartmouth Steam Railway; Launceston Steam Railway, and the Bodmin and Wenford Railway.

It is a fact of life that while youngsters are keen to speed time forward most adults would, on occasions, like to turn the clock back. Railway enthusiasts, given the chance, would specifically like to time travel to the halcyon days of steam.

Those with childhoods steeped in the sights and sounds of the grimy world of working steam find it nice in some small way to relive the memories.

Only too conscious of the lucrative spin off from nostalgia publishers Ian Allan have brought out abc British Railways Locomotives Combined Volume 1958 (£10.99).

It is now exactly 60 years since Ian Allan published the first of his ?abc? series on the Southern Railway. This was soon followed by companion volumes of the other three of the Big Four railway companies.

At the height of the interest in train spotting, in the 1950s and 1960s, several hundred thousand copies of each of the ?abc? volumes were sold annually.

Combined volumes were also produced which have become highly collectable.

Over recent years Ian Allan Publishing has been selectively reprinting these classic works of history.

For 2003 the combined volume for 1958 is the volume selected. Illustrated, this pocked-sized hardback lists every locomotive on the network that year.

It is fascinating to see the vast numbers of steam locomotives and wide range of classes that roamed the rails in the late 50?s.

A trainspotters? dream. Now all that?s needed is a time machine.

A publication that sets out all the undulations of the country?s main lines makes intriguing material. BR Main Line Gradient Profiles in the Age of Steam (Ian Allan Publishing £9.99) is another book. now reprinted by popular demand.

Railway engineers sought, particularly in the years of construction , to build lines over as level a route as possible to minimise the gradients over which the then primitive locomotives would operate.

However, the nature of the British landscape ensured that severe gradients often occurred.

Knowledge of these gradients was essential, particularly in the days of steam, when the locomotive crews had to judge when to build up pressure to ensure smooth ascent ? and when ?banking? of heavy trains was a regular feature of operation.

Alongside the trackbed gradient posts indicated changes of gradient, from which it was possible to translate the information into a form to show graphically the profile of the country?s railway lines.

In Devon the taxing inclines of Hemerdon, Rattery and Dainton Banks presented a challenge for steam crews ? particularly the firemen who needed to shovel a lot of coal.

This book ably illustrates the peaks and troughs of our main lines. It is particularly helpful for photographers out to capture a mainline steam special hard at work.

At a glance you can see where the best gradients are. That way the photographer can position himself by an incline to capture the dramatic spectacle of billowing steam and some percussive exhaust.

Going North of the border Steam Finale: Scotland by Brian Dickson (Ian Allan Publishing £19.99) is an evocative reminder of some far-flung Scottish steam scenes.

The author travelled widely capturing the last years of steam operation in Scotland.

Drawing on his impressive archive, he portrays the great variety of locomotives and services that could still be seen around the country even in the early 1960s.

From Aberdeen to Dumfries, he recorded the everyday scenes of the steam railway.

The book incorporates some 160 photographs ? all black and white. It portrays scenes that were once common but are now part of our railway history.