Aspects of East Anglian Steam, Volume Five
In this volume of Aspects of East Anglian Steam, John Mann takes a look at Great Eastern Branch Lines and the Midland & Great Northern Railway.
Throughout the Eastern Counties the branch line became an easy target for the Beeching cuts. All the ingredients were readily assembled: it was unprofitable and overstaffed, passenger receipts were poor, and so the list goes on. One underlying fact however, was that these lines played an important role in the network of railways that once connected even the remotest corners of East Anglia to the outside world. Nearer London the branch line had a contrasting role, serving the many towns on the suburban routes out of Liverpool Street, a service which at its peak was one of the most intensively steam operated routes in the country.
Beyond the capital abandoned traces of these once thriving transport systems disappear with the passing decades; housing estates, factory complexes and intensive farming soon take over where nature is not allowed to; even the latest Ordnance Survey maps frequently omit to chart former railways. Northern East Anglia will always be associated with the M.&G.N. Most of this system was cast aside one winter's day in 1959, but it is remembered with deep affection; luckily a small section has survived.
Softback, 32 pages, black & white photographs
Condition: Good/Very Good
ISBN: 9781871277197
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