Forgotten Railways: Volume 11 - Severn Valley and Welsh Border
The Severn Valley and Welsh Border country were veined by branch lines of infinite variety, with a way of life as slow and peaceful as the Severn itself. Trains often composed of a splendid variety of locomotives and coaches gave their own distinctive flavour to journeys between town and country.
Between Chester and Worcester, Shrewsbury and Hereford. Crewe and Craven Arms; amid the hop fields of Worcester and Hereford, and on high Shropshire hills, were some of Britain's most fascinating and individual branches and private railways.
Lines eccentric (undisputedly led by the Bishop's Castle); lines efficient (like the Hereford. Hay & Brecon); lines revived to go to war (the Shropshire & Montgomeryshire and Cleobury Mortimers & Ditton Priors); lines secondary (Wellington to Nantwich, which took the GWR to Crewel; all are remembered, together with selected signal boxes, level crossings and marshalling yards.
The countryside which railways left behind when they closed has changed little. Some stations and out-buildings survive in the landscape alongside old churches and pubs, half-timbered houses and cafes and historic hotels, which rail enthusiasts also like to visit.
Clues to the presence of old lines are sometimes as obscure - and rewarding to solve - as weekend cross-words: a station's position revealed by the tag on a letter box; a former banana warehouse identified by the nameplate of an electricity sub-station.
Generally more obvious are the positions of track-beds, especially where they have been converted for public use as country parks. footpaths or rest areas for weary drivers Sources used in the chapters placing forgotten lines in a broad perspective include unpublished material and personal memories that stretch back half a century to wartime boyhood. Finally there is a substantial gazetteer which gives instant access to a potted history of each line, and where to go and what to see to revive and cherish their memory.
Hardback with dust jacket, 200 pages, black & white photographs with pull-out map at rear
Condition: Very Good
ISBN: 9780946537433
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