A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain, Volume 7: West Midlands (1983 ed)
In the West Midlands the traditional pattern of railway history was reversed : industry came first—railways later. The Industrial Revolution had long been cradled in Coalbrookdale, and Birmingham was well established as Britain's second city and 'workshop of the world' before they arrived. The promoters of the first major railways to serve Birmingham and the Black Country had broader concepts, the aim of the Grand Junction and London and Birmingham Railways being to create a grand trunk to unite London with the north west of England and Scotland as well. Last came the GWR, wave-crested on its dream of `broad gauge to the Mersey'. That collapsed at Wolverhampton—a town where railway history was smeared with blood when a policeman wielded his cutlass to separate rioting navvies. The West Midlands defined in this volume is broader than generally accepted. It stretches via Crewe to the Cheshire Lines, embraces the North Staffordshire Railway and the Cromford and High Peak. The rest of its eastern boundary is the West Coast main line between Rugby and Weaver Junction. South of Birmingham the boundary is tightly drawn. That is because the companies that provided long distance links to Birmingham from the south were based elsewhere.
Hardback with dust jacket, 320 Pages, black & white photographs, pull out map at rear
Condition: Good/Very Good
ISBN: 9780946537006
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