Trains and railways: general interest

Many people will be familiar with the traditional signal box, controlling a level crossing or at a local station.

Today, most British Rail diesel locomotive types are represented in preservation, though some classes are much more prolific than others (in particular the more recently withdrawn).

Thousands of commuters south of the Thames use the railway daily, but how many know the fascinating history of the Southern Railway, created in 1923 from four smaller companies?

What are the wrong kinds of leaves on the track?

From nationalisation in 1948, British Railways built huge numbers of EMUs for suburban and short/medium-distance main line express duties, initially of pre-nationalisation design.

The seventy-four Class 52 diesel-hydraulics were built between 1961 and 1964 for British Railways' Western Region as high-powered locomotives to haul inter-city services.

CELEBRATING FIFE'S RAILWAYS.

Liverpool has many railway 'firsts' in the world: an inter-city service, an electrified overhead railway, a large-scale marshalling yard, a deep-level suburban tunnel and one under a tidal estuary.

While the first public passenger-carrying railway operated between Liverpool and Manchester from 1830, it was the construction of the Grand Junction and London & Birmingham that created the first long-distance, inter-city route from 1838.

The Chester & Holyhead Railway was incorporated by an Act of Parliament in 1844, and the promoters were thereby empowered to build an 85-mile line along the North Wales coast, the engineer for the line being Robert Stephenson.

The Manchester & Leeds Railway was sanctioned by Parliament in 1836 as a railway commencing at Manchester and terminating at Normanton, from where trains would reach Leeds via the North Midland Railway.

The obvious success of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway demonstrated that steam railways were a safe, fast and efficient form of transport, and by the end of the 1830s ambitious entrepreneurs were planning a multiplicity of railways up, down and across the land.

LEEDS to CARLISLE - The line from Leeds to Carlisle furnished the Midland Railway with an independent route to Scotland, in opposition to the rival London & North Western line.

Growing up in Preston, with its eclectic range of transport, provided well-known local historian David John Hindle with the inspiration to write this book on the transport heritage of Preston.

The drama of the landscapes of Yorkshire and Humberside combined with some of the most powerful diesel and electric locomotives to be found anywhere in Britain.

The drama of the Lancashire countryside combined with some of the most powerful diesel and electric locomotives to be found anywhere in Britain.

Formed in 1864 by the amalgamation of the Oswestry & Newtown, Newtown & Machynlleth, Llanidloes & Newtown and several other railway companies, Cambrian Railways was the largest independent railway in Wales, with a long, winding, single-track main line that extended from Whitchurch in the east to Aberystwyth and Pwllheli on the Welsh coast.

Two men started the transformation from sleepy hilltop community into a thriving town.

Incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1835 and completed just six years later, the Great Western Railway became one of the great icons of the Age of Steam, and perhaps the world's most famous railway company.

Swindon Works 1930-1960 is a fully revised and enlarged edition of Working at Swindon Works 1930-1960, first published in 2007.

The Somerset & Dorset Railway, known as the S&D (said to also stand for 'Slow and Dirty' or 'Serene and Delightful'), ran from Bath across the Mendip hills to Bournemouth on the south coast.

Geoff Swaine's superb photography captures the very best of Britain's preserved steam in action at locations throughout the country.

This is the ninth volume in the ten-part series of regional books examining the industrial railways of England, Scotland and Wales.

Continuing his series of regional books reviewing the industrial railways of England, Wales and Scotland, author Gordon Edgar looks at the railways of what is today Northumbria, County Durham and Teesside, covering a period of the last six decades, with an emphasis upon the former National Coal Board railways.

This sixth volume in the regional series of books looking at the industrial railways of England, Wales and Scotland specifically covers Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire, a region widely associated with the rapid growth of industry during the Industrial Revolution.

The industrial railways of the Midlands is a neglected topic deserving of greater attention.

Continuing his series looking at the industrial locomotives and railways of England, Wales and Scotland, Gordon Edgar looks at Greater London and the counties of Middlesex, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Oxfordshire and Hertfordshire, a region that rapidly expanded during the twentieth century around the traditional shipping routes into London's docklands and the numerous rail routes serving the capital, in particular from the north and west.

In this second volume in a regional series exploring industrial locomotives and railways in England, Wales and Scotland, we move on to Southern England and the West Country.

It was in 1841 that the London & Brighton Railway constructed the line from Norwood (linking with the London & Croydon Railway) to the coast.

Over the past generation the Class 66 has been one of Britain's most successful and reliable diesel locomotives.

The industrial and minor railways of the former counties of Cumberland and Westmorland are neglected topics deserving of greater attention.

Many people will be familiar with the sight of a traditional signal box, controlling a level crossing or at a local station.

From 1901 'Mallaig fish' was for some sixty years a staple traffic on the West Highland Railway, while the 40-mile Mallaig Extension became (and has remained) a renowned scenic experience.

The Southern Railway, today headquartered at Chennai, Tamil Nadu, is the earliest of the seventeen zones of the Indian railway that is vital in connecting the different regions of this vast country.

The first Waterloo Station opened in 1848 and the current building was completed in 1922, after a huge rebuilding programme started in 1899.

Central London is encircled by some of the finest railway architecture in the world.

'On an average Saturday, some thirty trains carried police escorts of between two and eight officers.

There is an unfathomable fascination with the romance connected to the construction of great railways, yet little is known of the beginning and growth of the pioneering railways of the world, of the heavy tax that their construction imposed on the ingenuity, skill and resources of their builders.

In the 1950s and 1960s these cheap return excursion trains ran overnight between London and both Glasgow and Edinburgh, departing on Friday evenings and then returning on Saturday evenings a week or a fortnight later.

In his time Isambard Kingdom Brunel was the world's greatest engineer.

The West Coast Main Line - going all the way from London to Glasgow - remains one of the most important railway routes in this country.

The LBSCR was the main route connecting London with Brighton and the pleasures of the South Coast resorts.

At its peak in the 1920s Ireland had some 3,500 route miles of track, today it has less than half that amount.

The London & Birmingham Railway was the first major line in Britain and it was the greatest achievement of its engineer, Robert Stephenson, the man who, together with his father George, had set the age of the railway in motion with their pioneering achievements.

The history of East Shropshire has had a global impact, with Ironbridge and Coalbrookdale acknowledged as the 'Cradle of the Industrial Revolution'.

The Sprinter revolution of the 1980s led to the mass withdrawal of British Rail's vast fleet of first generation Diesel Multiple Units.

Popular history will tell the tale of how the steam locomotive came to dominate Victorian Britain but while the steam railway died out in the 1960s, the electric railway was already a success story and one that would not only endure but dominate rail travel to the present day and beyond.

Thanks to a quirk of fate, and the survival of so many locomotives in the Barry scrapyard, the GWR is well represented in the steam preservation scene today.

The Cornwall Railway was authorised on 3 August 1846 with the aim of constructing a broad gauge rail link between Plymouth, Truro and Falmouth.

The Isle of Man has a rich transport heritage and once boasted the largest narrow gauge network in Britain with eight railways and tramways.