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 Utilising a superb selection of previously unpublished photographs from the camera of Ian Blackburn, the true story behind this...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...

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...

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...