Trains and railways: general interest

The Midland Railway accrued its vast wealth through coal, and while bank interest rates were paying about 3 per cent the Midland Railway was paying double that on its shares.

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.

One of the most evocative reminders of Victorian ingenuity at the British seaside is the much-loved cliff lift.

The steam locomotive, 'the most potent symbol of nineteenth-century civilisation', is perhaps the image that best sums up the Victorian and Edwardian eras.

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.

During the 1970s and 1980s, the Western Region was undergoing change in both trains and equipment.

In September 1967 the last steam locos finished operations in the North East - the area where it had all begun 142 years before.

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.

Over the years, the Republic of Ireland's railways have fascinated rail enthusiasts.

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.

The East Lancashire Railway is a well-established and popular 12.

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.

Although perhaps overshadowed by the fame of the Great Western Railway's sea wall section of railway west of Exeter, the Chester & Holyhead Railway, opened in full by 1850, has much to offer as it wends its way west.

At the start of 1963, author and photographer Charlie Verrall was disillusioned after the withdrawal of so many steam locomotives at the end of the previous year.

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.

The West Coast Main Line is the principal main line linking London to the West Midlands, the North West and Scotland.

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.

Hugh Llewelyn has visited, lived and/or worked in London since the 1950s and began taking railway photographs in the early 1960s.

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.

In the quarter of a century between 1830 and 1855, the railway locomotive developed from the small sisters of Rocketto the broad gauge monsters of Daniel Gooch, with a boiler pressure nearly three times that of Rocketand weighing in at nearly 40 tons (eight times the weight of Rocket).

In September 1962, the author started revisiting his boyhood trainspotting haunts at the London terminals - this time armed with a newly purchased camera loaded with colour slide film.

Steam on Britain's railways ended in 1968 - and the fifty years since have been a period of controversy and debate; has it been a time of progress and development, or under-investment and political meddling?

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.

George Stephenson was born in 1781, the son of a Northumberland colliery engineman.

Ask anyone who was a teenage railway enthusiast in the 1980s and they will regale you with tales of 'bunking' engine sheds or locomotive works.

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.

Electric Locomotives on Scottish Railways covers virtually the whole of the electrified network across Scotland.

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.

China was the last bastion of the steam railway, with construction of new steam locomotives for industrial use continuing up to the end of 1999.

With an aging fleet of Diesel Multiple Units, British Rail sought a low-cost solution to the problem of replacing a large part of their fleet.

It is now some forty years since the term 'Second Generation EMU' entered rail industry parlance.

The Midland Main Line (MML) links London's St Pancras station to the East Midlands cities of Leicester, Derby and Nottingham.

The city of Peterborough stands about 75 miles north of London on the East Coast Main Line (ECML).

It is now more than thirty years since two words synonymous with Diesel Multiple Units became part of railway parlance - 'Pacers' and 'Sprinters'.

How many times have we heard the phrase 'they don't make them like they used to'?

Most people, rail enthusiasts or not, have heard of steam locomotive names such as Flying Scotsmanand Mallard.

Narrow gauge railways have long been a source of fascination for many.

When thinking of railways in Merseyside, some people will think of the extensive third-rail Merseyrail commuter system.

The railway in 1980 had not changed much since the 1960s.

The railway in 1980 had not changed much since the 1960s.