British Railways The First 25 Years Volume 1: The East Midlands

The opening volume in a series of books illustrating the first 25 years of British Railways, which will eventually cover the whole of Great Britain, with all of the photographs coming from previously unpublished collections. This first volume, on the East Midlands, travels roughly from Nottingham in the north, via Derby, Burton on Trent, Leicester and Wellingborough, southwards down to Bedford. We visit the Great Central Railway London Extension, former Great Northern Railway lines around Nottingham – including the magnificent joint GNR and GCR Victoria station – and the Midland Railway main line and its associated cross country branches. We also call in at Derby Works and the main depots such as Colwick, Toton and Wellingborough. The industrial lines around the Nottingham coalfield are not forgotten and there are many photographs of the reasons for the building of our railways originally, showing freight workings and particularly the coal industry. Our selection of pictures also covers the pre-TOPS diesel era, as well as 1950s and ‘60s London Midland and Eastern Region steam. There are photographs of all the main classes associated with the area in steam days, ranging from the ‘Garratts’, through the glamorous named passenger classes to the numerous freight classes often working out their last few years, finally finishing with the essential shunting tanks. There are also a number of special features including a look at the Crosti ‘9Fs’ at Wellingborough, early diesel prototypes at Derby, a trip on the Desford to West Bridge Branch and a spectacular accident at Turvey on the Bedford-Northampton line. There is a mix of action and depot pictures, as well as plenty of unusual and ‘quirky’ shots amongst the 500+ photographs contained within, all backed up by extensive captions.