While the Beeching cuts are commonly remembered for their role in closing rail stations and lines, there have been station closures throughout the history of the network. This atlas maps all of Britain’s standard gauge railway lines and the dates when each line or station was closed. It also features photographs of selected stations, and an index and gazetteer listing the dates of closures and the company in charge.

Off-mint.

Slightly off-mint.

The 2019 edition of the guide focuses on main line operations and the extensive new train orders and fleet developments across the network. It features at least 15 new types of rolling stock.

Nigel Welbourn’s Lost Lines series covers over 400 closed lines across regions of the British Isles in 15 volumes. In this book he takes a different approach, giving an overview of Britain’s lost railways, selecting the best, and illustrating his survey with 400 colour photographs. From the Oystermouth Railway in 1827 to Folkestone Harbour branch in 2014, the book covers almost 200 years of closures, describing what is left of stations, halts, tunnels and viaducts, ports and harbours, scenic railways and railway hotels.

In a separate volume for the first time, the Light Rail and Preservation listings reflect the continuing growth of preserved traction and allows greater coverage of light rail, including full numeric listings of London Underground stock.

An expert on Britain’s architectural heritage and founder of the Railway Heritage Trust, Simon Jenkins presents an introductory history of the railway station and a personal selection of 100 buildings, chosen for their ‘architectural beauty, eccentricity or setting’. Beginning with the great London termini and ending at Wemyss Bay (‘a coherent work of art’), this richly illustrated volume is an erudite and engrossing survey of stations throughout England, Wales and Scotland, and the architects, engineers and railway companies that built them.

In order to have enough work to sell at his first exhibition, Jonathan Clay left the backgrounds to some locomotive compositions blank, intending to complete them later. The sale of these canvases helped establish his career as a railway artist and also set a signature style of composition. This collection of 150 paintings includes historic British steam engines, diesels from the BR era and narrow-gauge locos as well as engines from America and elsewhere.

The English Electric Type 1 (later Class 20) was one of 14 new diesel locomotive designs ordered as part of the British Rail Modernization Plan. Beginning work in 1957 and commonly used in pairs, they gained a reputation as rugged, reliable and flexible workhorses. A few examples are still operative on the network and this illustrated history examines their 60 years of service.