It was during the 1964 Autumn half term that a young Paul Cooper picked up a copy of Modern Railways at Kings Cross, inside was a story announcing of the -15 million Bournemouth electrification scheme, due for completion in early 1967. He knew that would represent the elimination of a 100% steam service in a little over two years and so he resolved to record as much of the action as he could, before it was gone forever.Over the next three years, Paul fulfilled that promise by travelling all over the Southern Region, photographing not just the special services of the era, but moreover the daily workings and the scenes in the stations, sidings and workshops where steam locomotives were seeing out their final years in service.Now, to mark 50 years since the last steam services ran in the UK, Paul has teamed-up with Cr- Publishing to bring many of these glorious photographs into publication for the first time. In addition to Paul''s own photographs, Southern Steam Swansong also includes im
