100 Years of Railways

A visual history of Great Britain's railway network. Contains around 300 photographs from PA Photos' huge archives, spanning the whole of the 20th Century. The railway system in Britain is the oldest in the world, beginning in 1825 with the first locomotive hauled public railway, and culminating in a network of more than 10,000 miles of track by 2000 and a high-speed rail link to continental Europe via the Channel Tunnel. This book traces rail transport from the cramped carriages hauled by dirty steam locomotives to streamlined air-conditioned trains. It charts the growth of private local lines, their amalgamation, the introduction of diesel and electric rolling stock, competition from road transport and the closure of branch lines and freight depots in the 1960s, through nationalization, privatization and the remedial work to restore the railways as efficient, cost effective transport for the 21st century.