Search results for ""Author Michael H. C. Baker""

A photographic journey of the ever changing railway scene of southern England stretching from Cornwall to the Kent Coast, served from 1953 to the present day by the Southern Region and its successors. When our story begins steam west of the Portsmouth man line still reigns supreme whilst much of the rest of the network is served by Southern Electric. Many of the trains at work in 1953 were of pre-1939 origin, some even dating back to the first decade of the 20th century, although the influence of Oliver Bullied's revolutionary semi-streamline pacifics and high capacity suburban electric multiple units pointed to the future. By 1967 diesel would replace steam, and electrification would spread, whilst many less well used lines in Hampshire, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall would close. Electrification had begun in the London area in the early 1900s, expanding to the Kent, Sussex and east Hampshire coasts, in the process creating the greatest main line electrified system in the world: this would continue down to today.

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Paddington is one of London's-indeed the world's-great railway stations. Designed basically by Brunel, although others contributed, it has served its intended purpose of providing a starting point and a culmination of countless journeys between the capital, the West Country, the Midlands, Merseyside, Wales and beyond, to Ireland and America, for over 180 years. In a highly illustrated book we look at the trains, steam diesel and electric, which have served it, the people who have passed through, and have worked there. We also consider its surroundings, which were once the fields belonging to Westbourne Manor House, where its locomotive depot would be built. A little further out was Old Oak Common, now deep in inner suburbia, the GWRs largest depot, still the home of the High Speed Trains and used as a depot for the Cross Rail construction. The approach to Paddington involved negotiating a fascinating complex of lines, serving both goods and passenger traffic, signal boxes and semaphore signals galore. To this day it is the only main line London station served by surface Underground trains.

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