The Great Western Railway: A New History
This book is the first to relate in a popular one volume form the history of the Great Western Railway from its beginnings until the last days of the company's independent existence. No other railway system in this country stitched itself so closely into, or reflected more intimately, the characteristics of the region it served than the Great Western. Additionally, its history is not only an absorbing story in its own right but reflects, perhaps more vividly than that of any other company, the outlook, social climate and economic trends of the early Victorian age and the first fifty years of this century. From the beginning, its adoption of the broad gauge set it apart from all other systems, and there are still diehards who believe that its worst mistake was to get rid of it. But it also maintained and cherished until the end an individuality of character, performance and appearance that earned it the fierce loyalty of its employees and drew to it in a remarkable degree the sentiment and affection of those it served.
Although written with the general reader rather than the specialist in mind this book is nevertheless firmly braced to facts. At the same time an attempt has been made to see some of the outstanding periods of the company's history through the eyes of those shaping its policies. Thus the import- ant part it played in opening up the holiday areas of the South West is stressed as well as the effect on it of the decline of the South Wales coal trade which earlier it had done so much to promote. It also looks closely at the 'era of Felix Pole', a period which saw the launching of the Castle and King loco- motives and revealed in Pole a man who exerted a remarkable and powerful influence on the outcome of the General Strike of 1926.
Hardback with dust jacket, 14x22cm, 208 pages, black & white photographs
Condition: Good/Very Good
ISBN: 9780946537167
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