As the modernisation of the former British Railways moved forward into Railtrack and then Network Rail, various schemes to bring the West Country railway network up to date came - and went!
During the days of British Rail it was possible to purchase a Rail Rover type ticket for unlimited travel over certain areas or regions, over a single day, or for a longer period.
The six principal classes of diesel locomotive that once made up the 'Type 4' classification - the 40, 44, 45, 46, 47 and 50 - were the survivors of a wider group that can trace its origins to the British Transport Commission's Modernisation Plan of 1955.
Railways Around Hereford features photographs taken by author Robert Lewis and a number of other railway enthusiasts, covering a period of around fifty years.
Though personally remembered by very few people, the interwar period was a fascinating time for railway enthusiasts, with the colourful liveries of the pre-Grouping companies allowing for a wide variety of interesting markings in the run-up to Grouping in 1923.
Railways Around Worcestershire is one man's view of a range of railway operations in the beautiful heart of England over a period spanning nearly half a century.
Following the First World War, some railway and tramway companies began selling the bodies of their railway carriages and tramcars, with many finding new uses as houses or bungalows, workshops, chicken houses, bus shelters or animal shelters.
The railways of Spain and Portugal saw steam locomotives working on the main lines until the late 1970s, although in Spain several mining companies still employed steam into the 1980s.
Best known as the Titfield Thunderbolt, Lion is one of the most beloved locomotives in railway preservation - transformed from humble luggage engine to film star, this is a Cinderella story.
Opened in 1960, the Bluebell Railway was the very first standard gauge former British Railways line in Britain to be taken over by volunteers, having seen the success already achieved at the narrow gauge Talyllyn and Ffestiniog Railways in Wales.
Following on from his popular series examining industrial steam in regions of the UK, Gordon Edgar looks at a series of fascinating workings around the world during the final days of steam in industry.
By the late 1950s the motive power in use by British Railways, both on passenger and freight services, was changing fast with diesel and electric traction becoming increasingly common.
The world-famous Beyer, Peacock works of Gorton, Manchester, is remembered principally for its remarkable Beyer-Garratt articulated locomotives, which ran in forty-eight countries.
The 1955 British Rail Modernisation Plan identified a need for small, lightweight diesel locomotives and the Birmingham Railway Carriage & Wagon Company, based in Smethwick in the West Midlands, was awarded the contract to build the Class 26, Class 27 and Class 33 locomotives.
As the modernisation of the former British Railways moved forward into Railtrack and then Network Rail, various schemes to bring the West Country railway network up to date came.
Bristol is fortunate in having a particularly photogenic main-line station in Brunel's magnificent Temple Meads, with a great variety of traction available both there and in the adjacent Bath Road diesel depot, now long gone.
During the nineteenth century, as the railways developed at an extraordinary pace, people began to build models of locomotives to either show how the finished engine would look when constructed or, more usually, so that they could see the locomotive in a much smaller scale than the original.
Dr Beeching's infamous 1963 report recommending cuts to a number of Britain's railways has long been etched into the consciousness of the British public, but a look at the rail map of Britain today reveals some survivors.
Ordered in 1985, the Class 91 was a joint venture between GEC, Brush and ASEA to deliver a fleet of 140 mph tilting electric locomotives for the East Coast Main Line.
With construction beginning in 1997, the Turbostar family of diesel multiple units are by far the most numerous design of such units introduced to the privatised railway.
Diesel Locomotives on Scottish Railways covers most of Scotland from Thurso in the far north to the border with England, from 1974 until the present day.
In common with many teenage railway enthusiasts on Tyneside in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Colin Alexander clocked up hundreds of miles per day travelling on a variety of classic diesel trains, especially their beloved Deltics.
Approved in May 1833 at the same time as the London & Birmingham Railway, the Grand Junction Railway was intended to act as a link between the London & Birmingham and the Liverpool & Manchester Railway.
The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg are three separate European countries that have their own railway systems, with much integration between each other.
Driven by the sudden realisation that steam had all but disappeared on his 'local' GE line, David Christie set about initially recording the London termini, but was then spurred on to record as much as possible on the whole of BR before it was too late.
The fourth in a regional series of books examining the industrial locomotives and railways of England, Wales and Scotland, this volume covers the counties of Essex, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Lincolnshire and East Nottinghamshire.
The city of Leeds in West Yorkshire was once one of the busiest railway centres in Britain and had the largest concentration of railway engine builders in the country.
This seventh volume in the series of regional books examining the industrial railways of England, Wales and Scotland looks at railways of the former Ridings of Yorkshire, a region that once boasted widespread coal mining activities, which strongly influenced the county's fortunes throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
'The most striking result produced by the completion of this Railway, is the sudden and marvellous change which has been effected in our ideas of time and space.
Continuing here with the North British Railway, Great North of Scotland Railway and the Cheshire Line Committee (CLC), Allen Jackson uses a range of previously unpublished photographs to evocatively demonstrate the story of signalling in the principal constituents of the LNER over the course of several volumes.
