Search results for ""Author Graeme Gleaves""

The Isle of Sheppey sits just off the north coast of Kent, where the Medway and Thames estuaries flow into the North Sea. Over centuries this was a place that was home to farmland, castles, a dock yard, an air station, industrial instalations, calm beaches and a population of islanders who have taken a pride in their home. To serve the needs of all of this a small railway network was built up and even an urban tram network. Included in this was a fixed link that was the first to ever link the island to the mainland. From 1860 the network grew as the importance of the island grew. Continental boat passengers, dockyard workmen and day trippers, they were all caried on the trains and trams that shuttled about to, from and across the flat terrain of this often overlooked island. Being an island can create its own unique set of challenges and the railways on the island were certainly challenged by missfortune and circumstances, but the little network kept going until economics got the bette

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The north east of England was the cradle of Britain's railways in the 19th Century. It was here George and Robert Stephenson would shape the steam locomotive. Then in the early 20th Century a second transport revolution took place around Newcastle when the suburban lines from the city to the coast were electrified in response to competition from the electric trams. What was created became the blueprint for modern day commuting. This book tells the story behind the creation of that network, the trains that served it. The narrative goes through the success and expansion years and ultimately the troubles that led to its demise. Our story comes full circle with the creation of the Tyne & Wear Metro, a ground breaking transport system that, like the electrified lines nearly 80 years earlier, set a new standard for suburban rail that would be the inspiration for schemes in many other parts of the country.

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