Cheona Publications Homepage

CHEONA PUBLICATIONS

Welcome to the website !

Cheona Publications was first started in 1995 when Geoff Gamble produced a book on the British Railways Diesel Multiple Units with Brian Golding. This book contains informative text and 360 line diagrams for each of the DMU classes including the 4-wheel railbuses, Southern Region DEMUs and the Blue Pullmans.

Geoff then developed the well received 'Railways In Profile' series of books in 1996, which started with a look at the British Railway Open and Hopper type wagons. Just before Geoffs untimely death at the end of 2000, Book No. 11 "British Railway Vans - Volume 2" was published. A good friend of Geoff's, Peter Midwinter of Railways Unlimited and The Railway Study Centre (formerly of Manchester, now North Wales) acquired Cheona the publishing business and quickly had a new book printed. This book, No. 12 'GWR Stations (Wales)' was compiled by Colin Judge as a tribute to Geoff.

Now that Cheona is based at its new home in North Wales, it is intended to expand the range and scope of railway books published. We always welcome enquiries from prospective new authors and they should contact Peter Midwinter to discuss the proposal at the first instance. Likewise, if you have good quality photographs or transparencies which you would like to see in print or wish to sell then contact us by post or phone as below.

** Important - if you have a trade enquiry about placing an order then please contact **

** Peter Midwinter at the address, phone or fax number listed below **

Latest News

Update 02/07/07 -

Over the past several years since this website has been running, we have received a many enquiries about the long out of print but highly sought after A Pictorial Record of British Railways DMUs' which was originally published by Geoff Gamble. Progress on this has been severly hampered due to missing and incomplete material and the condition of the master films. One idea that has cropped up would be to republish the book as a series of booklets which would allow the book to be split up into 8 or 9 sections. This has the advantage of allowing such a booklet to be bound so that the booklet pages can be opened out flat to aid the modeller or the enthusiast. What do you think of this idea ? Would a series of booklets containing the DMU diagrams appeal to you or would you prefer the entire book in one edition ? Another possible option would be to create a CD or DVD of scanned images which you can browse and then print off the appropriate DMU diagram sheets.

Work in Progress

We are in the early stages of planning a book looking at Second Generation DMUs following discussions with a new author. More details when available.

We are also looking to re-publishing selected out of print titles from the Railways in Profile series originally compiled by Geoff Gamble. No.1 'BR Wagons - Opens and Hoppers', No. 3 'BR Vans (Vol. 1)', and the much sought after No. 7 'BR Engineers Stock (Vol. 1)'. These will be limited print runs and if sucessful then we would consider re-publishing some of the other out of print books as well.

Another much sought after title which we have received many enquiries about is 'A Pictorial Record of British Railways DMUs'. This book is a long-term project as the book would need to done from scratch as there is a great deal of work to correct the diagrams which is the main cause of problems as so many different errors have come to light. Also a good deal of the photos are missing from the archive which we inherited with the business as well. The other factor to contend with is that the book was originally printed in what is now considered a non-standard or 'bastard' A4 paper size and format. Therefore we would have to re-size all of the book to allow it to be printed. I am actively looking at ways that the book can be republished and more info on this book will be added when available.

The site is split into several sections accessed from the links below. At present there are seven different book series and these can be viewed by clicking on one of the links below to take to the books. Each book has a brief description and excerpts.

I have added a HTML Book Order Form following requests from web users. I have designed a simple form which will print off onto an A4 sized sheet of paper. All of the book titles currently in print and their prices are listed along with post and packaging information. All you need to do is to print one off and complete and send to Cheona with your cheque and the book(s) will be dispatched to you.

Please remember to write clearly and use BLOCK CAPITALS when completing your personal address details. I'm sure you will appreciate that there is nothing worse than trying to decipher someones scribblings !!

An Adobe PDF Book Order Form has now been if you wish to use this format to print off one of our order forms.

Please add £1 for P+P for single copies and 50p for each additional book on the same order.

All cheques must be made payable to P F Midwinter. Sorry, but we do not accept Credit or Debit cards at present.

** Important - if you have a trade enquiry about placing an order then please contact **

Apologies for this, but the original Cheona email account was being getting huge amounts of spam emails - Paul 1st Sept 2006

** Please note emails are dealt with by the webmaster but are passed onto Peter Midwinter **

Publishers address is -
Cheona Publications, The Railway Study Centre, Tal Eithin Isaf,
Llanllyfni, CAERNARFON, Gwynedd, LL54 6RT.