In 1968, Jimmy James was in his final year as a student at the University of Manchester and realised that steam, as a way of life, was coming to an end all around him. He set about recording this momentous changing of the guard through the lens of his father’s camera, and the result is a series of immensely evocative photographs documenting the dying embers of the steam era on the railways of north-west England.

Published for the first time here in a selection curated by transport author Stephen Heginbotham, the photographs offer a richly rewarding and nostalgic tribute to the final years of steam.

•  Previously unpublished images
• Reviews in specialist press
• Latest Amberley railway book