Hello, I am JLW and my name features prominently on the front of all the books in the collection of Sarlines Railway Books which is an enterprise of our family in South Australia.
The derivation of the name is the lines of the (former) SAR, being the South Australian Railways. It reflects my passion for trains, but more-so that passion is for the history of railways and the rich resource of folklore that makes the contents of these books so engaging.
The series was commenced in 2019 with the aim of producing books of a high standard of historical content and excellence of print quality. In the previous year we had seen the production of The Riesling Railway that had been a history of the Riverton to Clare and Spalding branch-line. It also contained a wealth of information relevant to the Clare Valley Riesling Trail which is the outstanding example of rail-trail excellence.
It was a book of 200 pages with a hard cover and colour throughout. And people were prepared to pay the price for quality. There were 500 printed, with the greater proportion rapidly selling and covering costs. It provided the impetus for the establishment of Sarlines Railway Books in 2019 and has seen the production of one new title each year.
There are extensive synopses within this website that provide detailed information about each book but of all the stories there was one story that had not been previously been mentioned – my own!
I will start my story about 2021, I could bask in the success of the books on The Overland and The Train to Oodna Woop Woop and was contemplating the next book. Along the way we had discovered a new hero whose cause we have championed.
He was Bob, the railway dog. I have long had a fascination with understanding the failure to resolve the mess surrounding the diversity of railway gauges in Australia. That would be a social history of the gauge problem in Australia. And as I started the research and the writing it became clear that this was to be my magnum opus.
I took cheer from the knowledge that my book would be of greater relevance than just the railway enthusiasts who had been my main source of in the past This book was begging of a place in many libraries. It was relevant to all the states.
Given that it was of such importance to the future economy and infrastructure of the nation I had anticipated sales of 1,000 and upwards. But forward orders were slow and we were not rewarded with any meaningful book reviews from the proof copies that were sent out. There was a very positive response from John Hearsch of the Rail Futures Institute in Victoria, for it was in Victoria that we received our greatest support, and we received a delightful letter from Judy Brewer Fischer saying how much her late husband Tim, would have loved the book.
The Royal Historical Society of Victoria, kindly sent a copy to Professor Geoffrey Blainey who responded with a short and very encouraging note.
We received about 350 forward orders and did a print run of 400, of which the remaining 50 were slow to move. For myself it was a disappointment given that this book had been my life for about three years. The reality was that the nation had fallen upon lean times.
Thus was the origin of The Break of Gauge – A Social History. In the Epilogue, I wrote that this had been my Mount Everest, in the sense of what do you do when you have climbed Mount Everest? There will be changes to the Sarlines range of books for we have taken heed that the market no longer has an appetite for hard-cover books of 200 pages that are asking near $100.
There is much about my own story that I have not told. I will leave it to others to tell that.
I close by declaring our loyalty to the memory of that canine larrikin of the South Australian Railways, Bob the railway dog, and will keep writing Bob stories just as fast as a producer can turn them into film.
– Jo Jo Wilson
Sarlines Railway Books are not distributed through general retail book shops. Books are sold through our contact form.
If ordering within Australia, orders are processed promptly and dispatched in a protective mailer and sent by Australia Post.
For overseas orders, we are happy to quote for overseas destinations but wish to advise, that being a small operation, we are unable to get discounted overseas postage rates.
In 1924 the South Australian Railways placed in service twelve Model 55 petrol railcars to provide faster transport on lightly-patronised branch lines. The first of these railcars provided passenger services on the Clare line. This painting is by Harry Sherwin.
