{"product_id":"britains-rail-super-centres-birmingham-9780711020054","title":"Britain's Rail Super Centres: Birmingham","description":"\u003cp\u003eAt the heart of the industrial West Midlands, Birmingham, England's second city, has become one of the most important railway centres in the country. With a network of sub-urban services superimposed over one of InterCity's major provincial crossroads and with lines radiating out to all points of the compass, events in Birmingham can have a dramatic effect on the whole of the British Rail network.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eInevitably, Birmingham was at the heart of many of the earliest railway developments, with lines from both the north and south meet-ing in the city to form the first direct route from London to the north. From these origins, the London \u0026amp; North Western Railway - the Prem-ier line came to have a dominant role in the railway development of the city. But the LNWR did not have it all its own way, with both the Midland and Great Western Railways also being influential players in a game of consider-able railway rivalry that existed for more than 100 years. This rivalry bequeathed the city two impressive stations New Street and Snow Hill and an intricate network of lines to serve both passenger and freight needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs elsewhere, the Birmingham area has wit-nessed a relative decline in railway services, with the closure of numerous lines and freight terminals, but the new age of the railway is approaching with the recently reopened line to Snow Hill and the current project to electrify the Cross-City line as evidence of the positive future for railways in the city.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the first of the new 'Britain's Rail Super Centres' series, which will provide an indepth history of Britain's major railway centres, Paul Collins narrates the often dramatic railway his-tory of Birmingham. Britain's Rail Super Cen-tres: Birmingham follows on from the author's first book, Rail Centres: Wolverhampton, which received considerable praise from the critics when it was published in early 1990.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHardback with dust jacket, 22x29cm, 176 pages, black \u0026amp; white photographs\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCondition: Good\/Very Good\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ian Allan","offers":[{"title":"Secondhand (399)","offer_id":57503319982463,"sku":"9780711020054","price":6.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1910\/7111\/files\/9780711020054.jpg?v=1778584552","url":"https:\/\/rail-books.co.uk\/products\/britains-rail-super-centres-birmingham-9780711020054","provider":"Rail Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}