NEW JANUARY 2023. G H Lake clearly had a passion to found a lavish pictorial railway magazine. He tried three times, all of them while there was a serious shortage of paper, and three times he failed. First came ‘Railways’ in December 1939 – he was its editor, and the title was nominally published by his wife. After six issues the magazine folded, but its title was soon resurrected – now in the ownership of a company which called itself Railway World, but with G H Lake retained as its editor.

He resigned that post in December 1946, but the magazine he founded carried on monthly until August 1952. It did not close then, but from the September 1952 issue it bore the name Railway World.

Meanwhile Mr Lake launched his second attempt, which was a large-format quarterly called Railway Pictorial. This was brought out at the end of 1946, and the magazine lasted for just three issues.

There was then a pause, presumably while he readjusted his finances once more. Finally his third offering appeared in February 1949. That was a more modest periodical which initially came out every two months. He regarded it as a continuation of his previous publication and called it Railway Pictorial and Locomotive Review. This one initially seemed to thrive and at one stage became monthly, but by the end of 1950 it too stuttered to a halt.

What you get here are 170 pictorial railway magazines, with 4246 pages in total. Every issue of ‘Railways’ is there from No. 1 right through to the final issue carrying that name in August 1952, arranged in annual volumes – and, to complete the 1952 one, the first four issues of Railway World are provided as well.

You also have all three editions of Railway Pictorial that were ever published, and all fifteen copies of the Railway Pictorial and Locomotive Review.

Some of these are individual copies complete with their covers and adverts, others are from bound volumes usually with an index. They have been professionally scanned. We have made them word-searchable, and have also compiled a means for you to carry out a single word search of them all. We also provide a detailed 25-page contents list for the whole lot - you can see that here.

Bonus files include a 14-page one giving the considerable amount we have been able to unearth about Mr Lake’s life. A copy of his classic 1946 book on the railways of Tottenham is also there in full.

If you place your order here, what you will receive is a single DVD which contains all the files. An amount towards its postage and packing will be added at the checkout, before you commit yourself to the purchase.

Exactly the same set of files is also available as a direct download which you will find HERE. If you opt for that there is of course no postage to pay, and no need to wait for the postman to call. It also costs a little less, and past customers who have already bought from us some of the items that now feature in this collection can claim a further discount.

NOTES:- 

1. This is a data DVD not a video one. It will not play on an ordinary domestic DVD player.

2. We very much regret that these DVDs can be posted only to UK addresses owing to difficulties we have experienced with customs duties. Overseas customers are of course still more than welcome to purchase the download version – you will receive the same files without incurring the inevitable considerable delay. If you have serious misgivings as to whether your local internet will be up to the task, please feel free to consult us at sales@gersociety.org.uk.