{"product_id":"the-weston-clevedon-and-portishead-railway-9780905466422","title":"The Weston Clevedon And Portishead Railway","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Weston, Clevedon and Portishead line was one of the most unusual of all light railways. First mooted in an unsuccessful Act of Parliament of 1865, it did not receive its powers to construct until twenty years later; it then took no less than twelve years to build the first eight miles, and a further decade elapsed before the six-mile northern extension was opened. By that time the company had amassed a debt equivalent to one million pounds by present-day values and had been taken into receivership by its principal creditor. In this state it survived a World War, the 1923 railway grouping and the depression, only succumbing to closure at the advent of the second World War. In 1911 the creditor appointed Col Holman Fred Stephens (the 50th anniversary of whose death falls in 1981) as General Manager, Engineer and Locomotive Superintendent. In the thirteen years before his arrival there had been no fewer than twelve different engines on the line for various periods; in the remaining twenty-nine years only a further five saw service, together with two petrol-driven railcars. The line was now administered from his Tonbridge office, along with other lines under his control. Few records have survived from that source, and the minute-books and accounts — even the common seal — of the original company had been missing for many years. Compilation of a definitive history of the line has therefore had to be researched through secondary sources, and Christopher Redwood has painstakingly sifted through more than sixty years' issues of local papers, delved deeply into the railway press and talked to many former employees and their descendants. In these pages he presents the full story, including much new information from hitherto-undisclosed sources.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHardback with dust jacket, 15x22cm, 183 pages, black \u0026amp; white photographs\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCondition: Good\/Very Good, a little fading to DJ\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sequoia","offers":[{"title":"Secondhand (300)","offer_id":40686216085613,"sku":"9780905466422","price":15.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1910\/7111\/files\/9780905466422.jpg?v=1689938707","url":"https:\/\/rail-books.co.uk\/products\/the-weston-clevedon-and-portishead-railway-9780905466422","provider":"Rail Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}