
Bermuda Railway Resources
Books, Brochures and Videos
These books can generally be found in Bermuda, but may be hard to get anywhere else. You may be able to find them at The Bookmart (in Browns on Reid Street, Hamilton), which will ship orders overseas. The Bermuda Bookstore (3 Queen Street, Hamilton) generally has a good selection but does NOT ship overseas.
Simon Horn, The Bermuda Railway
Bermuda: National Museum of Bermuda Press, 2021.
ISBN 978-0-992265-34-2
I have been researching my history of the Bermuda Railway for a long time, starting almost as soon as I first published this website in 1998. Writing actually began in 2011, and now the book has finally been published and is available.
The reader will have to judge, but I think it is the most complete history of the line yet produced, while providing an unparalleled selection of pictures and illustrations of the old railway.
Find out more about the book and where to get it.

Colin A. Pomeroy, The Bermuda Railway, Gone But Not Forgotten
Bermuda: Colin A. Pomeroy, 1993.
ISBN 0-9521298-0-9
Colin Pomeroy has written several railway books, and The Bermuda Railway shows clearly that he is an enthusiast. For the railway lover, his book provides not just a history of the line and its operations, but also a host of information about rolling stock, stations, bridges and trestles, and other technical details. It includes many previously undiscovered photographs of the line as well as Pomeroy’s excellent guide to today’s Bermuda Railway Trail.

Colin A. Pomeroy, The Flying Boats of Bermuda
Bermuda: Colin A. Pomeroy, 2000.
ISBN 0-9698332-4-5
Not a railway book this time, The Flying Boats of Bermuda provides a fascinating look at another form of Bermuda transportation. Pomeroy carefully documents the civilian and military flying boats that provided the only air link with the outside world until Kindley Field airport was built during World War II. The book’s 250 pages are packed with the usual detailed information, photographs, diagrams and many appendices.

Colin A. Pomeroy with Michael J. Herbert, The Buses of Bermuda
Bermuda: Print Link Ltd., 2004.
ISBN 1-894916-38-7
Here Colin Pomeroy takes on the public transport system that replaced the Bermuda Railway after the closure in 1948. Once again he combines the history of the bus system with extensive technical data and pictures of virtually every model of bus that has ever operated on Bermuda's narrow roads.

David F. Raine, "Rattle and Shake", The Story of the Bermuda Railway
Bermuda: Pompano Publications, 1992.
ISBN 0-921962-08-8
David Raine’s book spends less time discussing railway details and more time presenting the railway in the Bermuda of the time, thus acting as a complement to Pomeroy. Raine also provides many historical photographs from the Bermuda Archives, as well as pictures of the remains of the line that are still visible today.

Brendan Hollis, The Bermuda Railway
Bermuda: Triton Productions Limited, 1989
This video comes from the About Bermuda television series. The Bermuda Railway presents a documentary look at the Railway using both modern and historical footage, and it includes an interesting interview with Bill Kitchen, son of the line's Chief Engineer, who also worked on the Railway before World War II. The video is sometimes available in bookstores and other shops in Bermuda, but can be hard to find.

David Rollinson, Railways of the Caribbean
London: Macmillan Caribbean, 2001.
ISBN 0-333-73042-9
David Rollinson’s colourful survey covers every railway he could find in the Caribbean, from tiny sugar and mining lines on islands like St. Kitts and Aruba to the full-size Ferrocarriles de Cuba, with its thousands of route kilometres. And, while Bermudians will remind you that Bermuda is not part of the Caribbean, the Bermuda Railway is included here in Chapter 3, with the Bahamas.

Elizabeth Jones, Bermuda Recollections
Bermuda: Ministry of Community, Culture & Information, 1993
A fascinating book of interviews and essays based on a series of workshops with Bermuda seniors held in the late ‘80s and early ’90s. As editor Liz Jones says, it is “a rich resource for those of us who find it difficult to imagine what Bermuda was like before the days of cars, of enormous economic growth, and of political change.”

Duncan McDowall
Another World. Bermuda and the Rise of Modern Tourism
London: Macmillan Caribbean, 1999.
ISBN 0-333-72753-3
Duncan McDowall’s fascinating history shows how Bermudians have carefully crafted both the image and reality of tourism in Bermuda for almost a hundred years, and in the process sheds light on the original decision to build the Bermuda Railway, rather than let in the dreaded motor car.

Period Material
Bermuda Railway Company, Ltd., Bermuda, Seeing the Sights by Railway
Bermuda: several editions through the 1930s
The Railway published several editions of this brochure for tourists through the 1930s. It presents the railway line as it was then, describing every station, and also includes a fold-out map. Some of the historical pictures on this site come from this brochure. (My first copy came from a Bermuda collector, but copies occasionally show up on eBay.)

Walter Brownell Hayward, Bermuda Past and Present
New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1935.
This combined history and guide to Bermuda was first published in 1911. By 1935 it had been revised twice, and this second revision included a new chapter entitled, “Bermuda from a Railway Car” that runs through the history of transportation on the island, the argument between pro- and anti-railway forces, the building of the railway, and a short guided tour of the line. It is easily found on Abebooks at a range of prices; just make sure you get the 1933 edition or later. Long out of copyright, the full text can also be found on archive.org.

Carveth Wells, Bermuda in Three Colours
New York: Robert M. McBride & Company, 1935.
Combination history/guidebooks were clearly popular in the ’30s. This one by Bermuda world traveller, adventurer and popular lecturer Carveth Wells, author of such classics as Adventure and Six Years in the Malay Jungles, has two relatively extensive chapters on the Bermuda Railway, describing the view along the line from Hamilton to Somerset, and then Hamilton to St. George’s.
Bermuda in Three Colours is also available on Abebooks, and the full text is on archive.org.
