The Industrial Railway Society was founded in 1949 as the Birmingham Locomotive Club - Industrial Locomotive Information Section. The Society is the leading organization in the United Kingdom devoted to the study of all aspects of privately owned industrial railways and locomotives, both at home and overseas, and we also cover heritage and privately preserved railways. Our flagship publication is the invaluable guide book Industrial Locomotives 19EL listing every current industrial and preserved locomotive in the whole British Isles, and for which we provide regular updates. We also publish a range of illustrated historical handbooks, covering all known industrial locomotives, area by area in the UK, plus some other countries, and builder’s histories, company histories, etc.
IRS publications are usually offered to members at a substantial discount on the normal purchase price. Members receive bi-monthly UK/Irish News BulIetins, Quarterly Overseas News Bulletins and a quarterly Magazine, the Industrial Railway Record (back copies of which are available on this site).
We also organise visits to private and heritage railways, usually with access to areas not normally open to the general public. - for more information see visits. Most visits are open to non-members, but where numbers are limited members get priority and often pay a lower rate.
If you are interested in joining the Industrial Railway Society please see the Membership tabs for details for the types available.
If you are a member please remember to log in to your account before ordering books with discounted prices, otherwise you will be charged the full public price.
We hope you will find this site easy to use, with the main categories listed on the menu bar at the top. Many of these have sub categories with hundreds of titles, both from us and other publishers. We also stock a range of used books.
16th October 2025 The Used Book stock will be refreshed over the next two weeks. Many Handbooks and IRS books willbe back in stock, together with a great selection of general Railway, Mining and Shipping titles.
Some other recent publications …
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There is also our range of historic videos
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Over an hour of East German steam (standard and narrow gauge), plus some trams and street scenes |
| Steam in South Wales 1962
Industrial steam at Uskmouth, Pontardawe, Elba and Llanelly, plus mainline steam at Brecon, and bonus scenes of more industrial steam at Tutbury and Kilnhurst |
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The Last Days of the Glasgow Trams Film of the Glasgow tram system in June 1962, a few months before closure. No industrials, but some bonus shots of Pacifics at London Kings Cross |
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**NEW France in 1967 Twenty-five minutes of footage covering both SNCF and industrial railways |
| ... and more to come, but as a taster click here for a free video showing FLYING SCOTSMAN's on a Warwickshire Railway Society special from Doncaster to Scarborough, 6th April 1986 |
.... and we have some
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