British Rail: A New History

Product Information

They are former BR chairman Peter Parker’s memoirs and also David Lawrence’s book on British Rail design. This isn’t as detailed as an academic referenced text would be, so train geeks may feel the lack of detail, but on the other hand it is accessible to a wide audience. The decision to set the chapters of this book in annual sub-sections of achievements in rail history inevitably leads to what at times seems totally disjointed reading. Christian Wolmar is generally regarded as the expert’s expert when it comes to the railways and his book is clearly written with great affection as well as knowledge and insight. The thing that should worry those who use Britain’s trains is that none of these figures actually represent the railways.

The end of the book covers the author’s anticipation and optimism for the Great British Railways White Paper which, it would seem, has been left in the sidings (awful joke). One of the strengths of this book is its concentration on those responsible for the day to day management of the railway network and their relationship with the various parts of central government. A pacy and very detailed history of British Rail from its formation in 1948 to its carving up by privatisation in 1997. The “victim of its history” argument is certainly a clear and powerful one that pulls together the essence of what many railway studies scholars have been. A signed paperback copy of British Rail: A new history - published by Penguin is Christian Wolmar's latest book and an account of the 50-year history of the organisation, both good and bad.A worthy scholarly work that sometimes it feels like British Rail telling its story in its own words.

The narrative does not flow at all, short one-sentence paragraphs are frequently inserted completely out of context. No missing or damaged pages, no creases or tears, no underlining or highlighting of text, and no writing in the margins. The opportunity for the UK to have a high quality integrated service was lost as the railways were broken up. His successor, Robert Reid, had a direct line to the secretary of state for transport, with whom he went shooting, and was on first-name terms with Denis Thatcher.The advertising was definitely one of the success of the company, even the 'Let the train take the strain' slogan is commonly mentioned in conversations too! In fact, there is a very real effort to inject color and vibrancy into the history of Britain’s postwar railways here, with a striking sense of design and presentation that brings readers into the history of Britain’s railways in an engaging way. But after its controversial 1948 creation, British Rail was actually an innovative powerhouse that over five decades transformed the UK, creating one of the fastest regular rail services in the world. Of course this is important, but it is given too much detail sometimes, where some of the niceties of the experience of being a rail traveller in the BR period could have had more coverage. Uniting disparate lines into a highly competent organisation – heralding ‘The Age of the Train’ – and, for a time, providing one of the fastest regular rail services in the world.

The descriptions can be wordy and technical at times, but if you’re a regular user of trains for commuting or general travel throughout the UK, the book is a must-read.Important events like the 1923 Amalgamation, when the majority of railway businesses joined the GWR, LMSR, or LNER, as well as nationalization and privatization, are placed in their historical perspective. Certainly not the one engineered by George Stephenson as one of the first was that laid down at Wollaton, near Nottingham, open by 1610, long before Stephenson's birth in 1781. Colin Maggs also ventures his views on where Britain's railways will go in the future, including HS2 and beyond. What Wolmar does communicate very effectively is the supreme difficulty of running a railway, with its huge fixed assets, astronomical overheads and susceptibility to changes in government, technology, the energy market and the natural environment. Within these pages, author Neil Parkhouse has assembled a breathtaking array of colour images, collected assiduously over a period of more than ten years, which are coupled with maps, tickets, WTT extracts and other ephemera to paint a picture of the railways of West Gloucestershire and the Wye Valley as they existed mostly over fifty years ago.