American public transport enthusiast and photographer Ray deGroote from Chicago travelled around the world from the mid-1950s onwards and brought home countless colour photographs of a large number of transport operators, most of which have long since ceased operations. When the author of this article first saw his pictures many years ago, he was amazed: the quality of the photographs is often so good that one could easily believe they were taken not long ago. But the scenes themselves convey a wonderful impression of the atmosphere of the places visited, as life was in Southern Europe many decades ago. In addition to the very good technical quality of the photographs, this is mainly due to the choice of motives, which in many cases not only fill the frame with the vehicles, but also show the tramways and light railways in their environment. ‘People welcome!’ – this is valid for many of the photos, which today, after five, six or even seven decades, provide an excellent picture of the atmosphere of the era.
Ray deGroote photographed in colour at a time when this was often unaffordable for many European enthusiasts – which makes his pictures all the more rare today. His images provided the inspiration and make up a little more than half of all the photographs in Volume 1, but various other photographers also contributed to the excellent selection of images, and numerous private collectors and archives (including the Online Transport Archive OTA) made their collections available.
The book is intended to be the first in a series of three books dealing with many of the trams and electric light rail systems that were still in operation in Spain in the mid-1950s.
The first volume covers the present-day regions of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencia. There are many different systems, track gauges, operating modes and vehicle types to observe – the diversity is just overwhelming. Apart from a few preserved vehicles, all of this has long since disappeared and is brought back to life in this work.
We look forward to the next volumes!
Authors: Martin Jenkins and Charles Roberts
Editorial: Light Rail Transit Association – LRTA
144 pages, 192 photos in colour
Format: 21 x 29.7 cm, hardback landscape
Price: GBP 39.00
ISBN: 978 0948106729
