Sutton's Photographic History of Railways
2 total works
For countless holiday-makers, a trip to the seaside resorts of the West Country used to mean travelling on the network of lines operated by the Great Western and the London and South Western railways. Before the reshaping of British Railways following the Beeching Report in 1963, a wide variety of trains operated in Devon. This book chronicles these trains during a period of dramatic change, as lines were closed down, steam traction was phased out and the thundering express and the hard-working tank disappeared. A wealth of these lost images can be found within this evocative collection of over 200 photographs. Comprising the work of both amateurs and professionals, the book also reveals glimpses of the stations, the people who worked on the lines, and of the high days and disasters. Brought together here as a collection, they pay homage to the great days of steam.
During the great age of steam, most railways in Dorset were operated by the Southern Railway and the Great Western Railway. These Dorset railway companies and daily life on the branch lines during this era and beyond are recorded in this text amid many captioned photographs. Bygone railway stations are affectionately recalled, together with open cattle trucks and luxurious Pullman coaches that served our great-grandfathers' generation.