This album is the first of two volumes covering the extraordinary breadth and individuality of narrow gauge railways in England, ranging from the diminutive 18in gauge serving the L&NWR’s famous Crewe Works to the Colonial-style Leek & Manifold 2ft 6in gauge line in Derbyshire.
The theme of these books also consider the overall development of narrow gauge railways in England, within the political, legal, economic and social frameworks of the 19th and 20th centuries. Narrow gauge railways in England were largely built for three different purposes: industrial, military or as common carriers connecting communities left out of the railway mania construction of the 19th century.
Within this framework, local entrepreneurs and several innovators, such as John Barraclough Fell, Magnus Volk, Richard Rapier and E.R. Calthrop, pushed out the barriers of the narrow gauge. By the outbreak of the First World War there were ominous warnings that road transport might provide a better bet than the narrow gauge railway.
This war largely stopped any further significant advancement of the narrow gauge and the public lines in Britain began to struggle financially. The Second World War pushed many of these enterprises into bankruptcy as labour and materials were diverted to the war effort. During and immediately after the war, the majority of the remaining lines closed.
For the railway enthusiast, however, English narrow gauge railways were to prove welcome news, as each developed its own idiosyncratic character as well as being operated by a wide range of different and largely attractive steam locomotives and rolling stock, enduring them to history if not commerce.
English Narrow Gauge Album Volume 1 presents histories of several narrow gauge railways around England, most of which are no longer in existence.
Chapter List:
- Minimum Gauge
- A Cornish Engineman's View: The Pentewan Railway
- Outpaced by Demand: The Torrington & Marland Railway
- A Missed Preservation Oppurtunity: The 3ft Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway
- Suffolk Enterprise: The Southwold Railway
- Remunerative Railways for New Countries: Ransomes & Rapier Ltd
- The Oldest Electric Railway in the World: The Volks Electric Railway
- The Golfers' Tramway: The Rye & Camber Railway
- Birmingham's Narrow Gauge Tramways
- The Railway from Nowhere to Nowhere: The Leek & Manifold Railway
- English Locomotive Manufacturing for the World: The Hunsley Engine Company
- The Last Steam-Working System: The Bowaters Paper Railway
Each chapter is well-illustrated with a series of archive black & white photographs and reproduced postcards. Hardback. 200 pages.