Railway History in Pictures: Wessex
Wessex is an area known to many but defined by few, for over centuries its boundaries have changed back and forth. For the purposes of this book it ideally describes an area otherwise ponderously known today from common use on BBC weather forecasts as Central Southern England, covering the Isle of Wight and the counties of Hampshire, Dorset, parts of Somerset, Avon, Wiltshire, Berkshire and the southern tip of Gloucestershire.
It has a fascinating railway history, not perhaps of such antiquity as the waggon- ways of the northern coalfields but including all the cut and thrust of rival companies, even leading to physical violence in one opening day incident near Portsmouth in the last century, and a major train disaster at Salisbury early in the present century.
The area includes three east-west main lines the GW's Berks & Hants, and the LSW West of England and Weymouth routes and is bounded to the north by a fourth, the original GW route to the West via Bristol. All were bisected by numerous cross-country lines and branches, a few happily still with us but most now mem- ories, and many traces of early railways left in limbo by later diversions and exten- sions, or the more recent closures, can still be found. H C Casserley has assembled more than 100 photographs illustrating the railway history of Wessex, not only of the major concerns but also the out of the way local, rural, and industrial lines.
Hardback with dust jacket, 18x25cm, 96 pages, black & white photographs
Condition: Good
ISBN: 9780715370582
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