Great Britain has a rich railway heritage which really began with the Stockton & Darlington line and progressed through railway mania to the gradual consolidation of the network. This led to the Big Four (LMS, LNER, GWR and SR) in 1923, the formation of British Railways in 1948 and the unprecedented upheaval of privatisation in the 1990s.

Christian Wolmar describes how the rise of the railway allowed people and goods to circulate around the country as never before and in doing so provides a useful summary of a complex industry. Click on the image for a bigger picture.

Atlantic Books, 2007, 364 pages. Hardback.