Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
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 meeting point of these two independent companies was Birmingham. The new railways came to benefit the town, through the carriage of goods, parcels and passengers and complimenting the already extensive canal network in the area. In addition to the London & Birmingham and Grand Junction, railways to Gloucester and Derby were constructed. That to Derby joined up with railways to Nottingham, Sheffield and Leeds, placing Birmingham at the heart of an inter-city rail network. The aim of this book is to investigate railway construction within the West Midlands, showing how the system developed and how it served both the needs of the travelling public and the conveyance of goods and merchandise.
Synopsis
The West Midlands had some of Britain s premier railway lines passing through but it also had many branch lines and industrial routes serving the many towns and settlements around Birmingham, as well as feeding the factories, iron and steel works and coal mines of the area with raw materials, as well as transporting away to market the finished products of this industrious region.
From the West Coast Main Line to the industrial heartland of England, Ray Shill uses just a part of his fantastic collection to portray the railways of the West Midlands, giving us a feel of just how busy they once were. Many places have lost their railway line, and the reason it once existed. What is important are not just the images themselves but the backgrounds which show a changed West Midlands, where the industry has gone and been replaced by modern factory units or housing, or even remain as brown field sites."