Robert Hendry

The Southern Railway, and later British Railways’ Southern Region extended its reach into Devon and Cornwall, competing with the Great Western Railway. The main line served Exeter and Plymouth and named trains such as the ‘Atlantic Coast Express’ and the ‘Devon Belle’ took holidaymakers to the coastal resorts, including Padstow, Bude and Ilfracombe. In addition, a network of lines served smaller locations in the two counties. Many of these lines were closed in the 1960s, during the Beeching era, and earlier BR’s Western Region had taken over the Southern’s lines in Devon and Cornwall west of Exeter. In this book railway historian Robert Hendry documents in photographs the changing race of the railways on these lines, from the days of the Southern Railway into BR’s ownership.

A key part of the Great Western Railway’s network was the main line to the North through Birmingham. From London, this route including the Princes Risborough cut-off joined Didcot, Oxford, Banbury and Birmingham, and then Wolverhampton, Chester and Shrewsbury, opening up destinations in the North and North West. The GWR also ran services on its joint lines with the London & North Western Railway and the Great Central Railway, to reach Birkenhead and York. In this book author, modeller and railway historian Robert Hendry draws on his extensive collection of historical images to present a photographic portrait of this significant part of the Great Western Railway through the years.

The London & Birmingham Railway was the first intercity line in Britain to travel from London. Superbly engineered by Robert Stephenson, this pioneering early achievement of the railway age in Britain linked England’s second city Birmingham to the capital at Euston station and became part of what later came to be known as the West Coast Main Line. En route, the line travelled through Rugby and Coventry and terminated at Curzon Street station in Birmingham but by 1854 passenger services stopped at Birmingham New Street instead. The route soon became part of the London & North Western Railway, later absorbed into the London, Midland & Scottish Railway at the Grouping in 1923, before becoming part of British Railways in Nationalisation in 1948. In this book author, modeller and railway historian Robert Hendry draws on his extensive collection of historical images to present a photographic portrait of the Euston to Birmingham route through the years up to the Rail Blue era of British Rail which ended in the 1980s.