Decades after its dissolution, Western National remains one of the most recognisable and beloved bus and coach operators in Britain. Covering a broad area encompassing Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Gloucestershire, this brand fired the imagination of countless enthusiasts and served its community admirably. The images presented are from the camera of Jeff Jones, a well-respected and prolific transport photographer with a vast stock of material. They are published here for the first time, i...

In The End of the Woodhead Route: Electric Trains Stop Here, transport historian Stephen Heginbotham takes a fresh look at this famous and much mourned route. Perhaps the most keenly missed stretch of track in the entire country, the possibility of the Woodhead Route being reopened remains an ever present issue when the state of the nation’s railways is discussed. Utilising a superb selection of previously unpublished photographs from the camera of Ian Blackburn, the true story behind this...

Covering industrial steam throughout the British Isles over several decades, the terrific photographs featured here, captured by David Letcher, document a period of our industrial development that is now long gone. Steam-powered workhorses helped turn Britain into an industrial powerhouse, and these wonderful photographs show these locomotives in a variety of settings – a long way from the steam heritage railways of today. Published for the first time here in a selection curated by transpo...

In 1968, Jimmy James was in his final year as a student at the University of Manchester and realised that steam, as a way of life, was coming to an end all around him. He set about recording this momentous changing of the guard through the lens of his father’s camera, and the result is a series of immensely evocative photographs documenting the dying embers of the steam era on the railways of north-west England. Published for the first time here in a selection curated by transport author S...

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 last forty or so years, Devon has seen a variety of locomotives: the famous HST, Class 57, Class 66, Voyagers, and Class 158 and 159 DMUs, among others. Now the West Country is seeing the Hitachi Class 800 electro-diesels displace the much-loved HST, with a hope that they will improve journey...

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. While such tickets are still available, they do not emulate those early tickets and the romantic idea of cheap rail travel and adventures over the national rail network. Of course, these tickets were, and still are, popular for journeys into and within the West Country, because of the destinations and resorts wit...

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! Consequently, the far west of the network from Plymouth to Penzance became locked in a kind of time warp of semaphore signalling and cascaded rolling stock. During the last forty or so years, Cornwall has seen the demise of once common classes of locomotives and the introduction of the famous HSTs, Class...

A biography of the nineteenth-century Englishman who was " one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history" ( Nature).Civil and mechanical engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel's accomplishments were extraordinary—involving the Great Western Railway, the SS Great Britain, the Clifton Suspension Bridge, prefabricated hospital buildings for use during the Crimean War, and more. Born in Portsmouth in 1806, he followe...

Western SMT was formed in 1932, when the Scottish General Transport Company (which operated buses in Renfrewshire and Ayrshire) merged with Midland Bus Services, which operated from the south-west of Glasgow as far as Ayr, Stranraer and Dumfries. From 1949 to 1991 Western SMT was state-owned, first as part of the British Transport Commission and then as part of the Scottish Bus Group. In the run-up to deregulation the company was split into two with the northern half of its operations tran...

Narrow gauge railways, so well suited to difficult, mountainous terrain, were built in many of the UK's most scenic locations.Their genesis was in mines and quarries where they replaced man- or horse-pulled wagons, but their adaptability meant that by the 1860s they were also carrying passengers, in some cases over quite considerable distances. Today a good proportion of all the important lines survive in the service of tourists, whose appreciation of the landscape...

Anyone who has tried to watch freight moving on UK rails in the last few years will realise these are challenging times for the rail freight industry. Stand by any railway line and you may have to wait a while to see a freight train of any sort pass by. Indeed, many large areas of our rail network see no regular freight traffic at all. Against a backdrop of declining volumes, the competition between the various freight companies has never been so acute. The ‘big five’ freight haulage compa...

The nineteenth century was an era of scientific advance like no other in history. And no nation gained more from its forward momentum than Britain and her Empire. Railways were built, bridges constructed, rivers tamed and electricity harnessed, to the great benefit of all But progress was only achieved at high cost. Impatience for achievement too often resulted in catastrophe and disaster. In 1879, the Tay Bridge was the longest in the world and a wonder of its age. But on a stormy night i...