Search results for ""Author Patrick Bennett""

The pre-Grouping companies were fiercely competitive and would defend any incursion by another company penetrating what they considered to be their ‘territories’. Nevertheless, at times they would co-operate. This co-operation resulted in a large number of joint lines. These joint lines ranged from fully independent operations, complete with their own staffs, locomotives and rolling stock, to short lengths of railway used by the joint companies, with the cost of maintenance shared. There were more than seventy of these joint lines and all feature in this series by popular railway author Patrick Bennett. This volume focuses on those found in Scotland and the north of England.

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The Chilterns consist of a band of chalk hills to the north-west of London stretching from Oxfordshire to Hertfordshire. It so happened that these hills were directly on the routes of five major companies’ routes to the North and Midlands. These were: the Great Northern, the Midland, the London & North Western, the Great Central and the Great Western. As well as the main lines there was a large number of branches, now nearly all closed. To complete the picture, to the north of the Chilterns was the Oxford to Cambridge transversal route, part of which remains open, and part of which is being actively restored. This book relates the story of these lines and their branches, through their construction and operation, the closures of the 1960s, to the situation today. Illustrated throughout with historic and modern photographs, maps, diagrams and timetables.

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The first railway to penetrate Sussex was the Brighton Line of the LBSCR. From this beginning, lines spread out along the coast. Over the succeeding years further lines stretched across out the rest of the county, all built by the ‘Brighton’, which was by far the dominant railway company in the area and established a major works at Brighton. The company, however, didn’t have it all its own way. In the south-west corner the LSWR penetrated as far as Midhurst, and in the east the SECR had the fastest route to Hastings. Branching off this line at Robertsbridge was the Kent & East Sussex. There were also two of Colonel Stephens’ rather idiosyncratic railways in the county: The Rye & Camber Tramway, and The West Sussex Railway. The story of the growth and development of the railways of Sussex, and in some cases their demise, is told here.

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England’s second largest county contains a wealth of railway history. The county was dominated by two companies – the Great Central in the north and the Great Northern in the centre and south. The county was also penetrated by the Midland Railway and there were no fewer than three joint lines. In the south the Midland & Great Northern Joint passed through from west to east, while the Great Northern & Great Eastern Joint ran north to south. In the far north-west of the county was the Isle of Axholme Railway, jointly owned by the North Eastern and the Lancashire & Yorkshire. The East Coast Main Line passes through the west of the county and this stretch includes the major railway centre of Grantham and Stoke Bank, where Mallard made its record-breaking run. Other important railway junctions are Sleaford, Boston, Spalding and Lincoln. On the coast are the seaside towns of Skegness, Mablethorpe, Sutton and Cleethorpes, which in the tourist season would see the arrival by train of thousands of holidaymakers. Further north is Grimsby, which provided numerous fish trains. So important was this traffic that the Great Central had a class of engine commonly used on these trains known as ‘Fish Engines’. Next comes the important port of Immingham, Britain’s busiest, which sees some 240 train movements per week. On the north Lincolnshire coast is New Holland, from where the railway-owned ferry used to cross to Hull. Further west is the steel-making town of Scunthorpe, which has its own railway system and is another important customer of the railway. There were other railways too: the Immingham Electric Railway, the Alford steam tram, and the potato railways – one system of which extended to more than twenty miles. RAF Cranwell had its own branch line. There are three tourist railways, one standard gauge and two narrow gauge. Using a wealth of rare and previously unseen photographs, Patrick Bennett documents Lincolnshire’s railways.

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The railway in 1980 had not changed much since the 1960s. There were certainly no more steam locomotives, but passenger trains consisted largely of carriages hauled by locomotives, which had mostly been constructed in the 1950s or early 1960s. Secondary services were provided by various types of multiple units from the same era. Freight traffic was still buoyant and marshalling yards busy. There were numerous freight branches and sidings. Traditional signalling was still very much in evidence throughout the system, even on some main lines. In 1980, BR was still one railway. All this was about to change. Sectorisation arrived during the 1980s; many freight traffics were lost, including newspapers and parcels. Numerous freight branches and sidings went out of use. At the same time new types of motive power were introduced, replacing the former loco-hauled trains. Hundreds of traditional signal boxes closed. Finally, in 1995, privatisation arrived. Focusing here on the north of England and Scotland and utilising a wealth of photographs and maps, together with comprehensive notes, this book reflects the immense changes that took place in the railway scene between 1980 and 1995.

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First on the scene was the London & Southampton, soon to change its name to the London & South Western. The branch on to Salisbury was the start of the LSW’s drive to reach Exeter. Other routes followed including the Portsmouth Direct, intended to outdo the London & Brighton’s attempt to capture the Portsmouth traffic. The need to reach Bournemouth resulted in two separate lines built by the LSW. Gradually the LSW developed its network; some routes such as the Meon Valley or the Sprat & Winkle were never very profitable and succumbed to early closure. The LSW did not have it all its own way in the county and no fewer than four different companies penetrated from the north. These were the Midland & South Western Junction; the Didcot, Newbury & Southampton; the GWR from Reading to Basingstoke; and in the far north-eastern corner the South Eastern Railway. In the south-eastern corner, the LBSCR penetrated as far as Portsmouth and Hayling Island. The Isle of Wight had three different railway companies controlling lines that totalled fewer than 50 miles. Always something of a curiosity, the remaining line from Ryde to Shanklin has been operated for more than fifty years by redundant London Underground trains. Patrick Bennett uses previously unpublished photographs to tell the story of the area’s railways.

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Derbyshire is a county of contrasts, and the development of the railways reflect this. In Limestone Country in the west the LNW held sway with its railways from Ashbourne and Cromford to Buxton involved in the extraction of limestone. Meanwhile, in the east of the county, no fewer than four different companies fought over the lucrative business of coal carrying in the huge North Midlands Coalfield. From the historic railway town of Derby, the Midland Railway had routes south to London, west to Birmingham and north to Sheffield. In the north of the county was the MR’s Hope Valley route, which included two of the longest tunnels in Britain. Further north still was the Great Central’s Woodhead route carving its way through the gritstone. Altogether no fewer than six railway companies were represented in the county, including the Great Northern penetrating from the east, the North Staffordshire in the south-west and the Lancashire, Derbyshire & East Coast Railway with its transversal Chesterfield–Lincoln line. A complex but fascinating story, told using previously unpublished photographs, this book charts the development of the county’s railways from the earliest days.

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During the railway mania of the nineteenth century many places gained more than one station, and not just in the big cities. Many small settlements ended up with two or even three stations. This was almost always as the result of competition between the railway companies, anxious to secure more business for themselves, though there were exceptions. As the railway network continued to grow and develop, many of these locations ended up with no stations at all.This is the lavishly illustrated story of these unfortunate places in the northern part of Britain that were once so well provided for, and are now bereft.

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Lavishly illustrated throughout, this book tells the story of the South of Britain railways in locations that were once served by more than one station - and then, eventually, by none.

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No fewer than sixteen pre-grouping companies were represented within Cumbria’s borders, seven of these in Carlisle alone. To the east of the mountains are the great Anglo-Scottish lines of the London and North Western and the Midland. Venturing across the Pennines were the transversal routes of the North Eastern Railway, from Newcastle to Carlisle, and Darlington to Tebay and Penrith. The Cumbrian coast presents a completely different picture. Here the multiple competing companies were concerned principally with the transport of coal and mineral ores to serve the huge industrial complexes to the west and south. The two principal coastal lines were the Maryport and Carlisle in the north and the Furness in the west and south. In the Whitehaven/Workington hinterland there was a number of other railways, all concerned with mineral extraction and transport. Lines penetrating the interior of the Lake District were the Coniston, Lakeside and Windermere branches and the Cockermouth, Keswick & Penrith Railway that crossed the Lake District from west to east. In the north were the Caledonian with its main line to Carlisle and the short-lived Solway Junction Railway, and the North British with the Waverley, Port Carlisle, and Silloth lines. The Glasgow and South Western also ran trains into Glasgow. The history, development, and in some cases closure of each of these lines is described in turn, illustrated with a selection of photographs from different periods in their history.

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1980 to 1995 was an extraordinary time for the railways of Britain, especially the freight sector. In 1980 there was a unified, monochrome railway. Freight traffic was still abundant, with marshalling yards active and many branch lines still operating. There were hundreds of collieries. In the early 1980s, Sectorisation arrived. The freight division was separated from the passenger side and further sub-divided into different freight sectors. New locomotives were introduced, and the older types started to disappear. As the eighties progressed, the freight sector was constantly changing. The mixed freight train became a thing of the past but new traffic flows developed, particularly in containers and aggregates. The coal sector steadily declined and branch lines became disused. In the early nineties three new freight companies were created in anticipation of privatisation and then finally privatisation itself arrived, with all freight traffic being taken over by an American company. It was a period of enormous change and adaptation, and the story is told here through the images of two photographers who were keen observers of the railway scene throughout the whole of this fascinating period.

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