'The Life of LTC Rolt', by Victoria Owens
Pen & Sword History, ISBN 978 1 39905 661 8
I only met Tom Rolt once at the 'second inaugural meeting' of the AIA at Imperial College and his involvement in railway preservation was evident in the use of his 'Acme Thunderer' whistle to recall the meeting after lunch. I met his widow, Sonia, on visits and at meetings, over the years after his death.
Victoria has documented Tom's life and career, describing both his and industrial practices from individual skills to production lines and his involvement in canal and railway preservation.
The debate between keeping heritage 'as was' and preservation through adaptive re-use is illustrated by the switch from canal preservation to revival and promotion of railways. As well as a practical engineer and campaigner Tom was an author of many books and a three-volume autobiography.
The researches were helped by Tom's published works, society documents and family papers, the depths of which is illustrated by 45 pages of notes, references and index at the end of the book. Dan Hayton