Dorset's Railways Remembered
Dorset was once rich in rural railways and their histories are full of incident. With very little heavy industry, the- county escaped the interest of early railway promoters seeking to link the cities and ports of a flourishing Victorian England. One of Dorset's first lines, from Southampton to Dorchester, came in 1847. It was known as 'Castleman's Corkscrew' after its solicitor promoter who hoped it would become part of a major trunk route into the West Country. There followed nine years of bitter rivalry between the various railway companies before a route to Exeter was finally chosen, not from Dorchester but from Salisbury. Other lines followed steadily, linking towns, ports, villages and resorts. They passed through some of the most beautiful areas of the English countryside and provided an essential service to the rural communities. Some of these country lines live on, but most of them did not survive the competition of the roads and the consequent rationalization of the 1930s and the Beeching Plan of the 1960s. In Dorset Railways Remembered, Leslie Oppitz explains the history of the surviving lines as well as those which have been lost. He gives the reasons for their construction and, where relevant, their closure. His account also includes visits to neighbouring towns such as Axminster, Chard and Yeovil. The old `Somerset & Dorset' line is explored and there are visits to the restored Swanage Branch, plus a narrow gauge system near Ringwood. Modern photographs taken by the author accompany those from earlier times, many of which are published here for the first time in book form. His excellently written and researched book will be enjoyed both as railway history and as a means by which the reader can explore for himself many of the 'lost railways', some now footpaths, that have survived from the heyday of the railway age.
Hardback with dust jacket, 112 pages, black & white photographs
Condition: Very Good
ISBN: 9781853060427
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