A comprehensive survey of the city of Exeter’s railway history by noted railway historian, David Mitchell. Exeter has always been an important railway centre and for about 100 years acted as a crossroads where rival companies the Great Western Railway and the London & South Western Railway (later the Southern Railway) met while serving their respective networks in Devon and Cornwall.
The development of the early railway companies and the two ‘Big Four’ companies that followed is described, including not only the two main lines, but also the branch-line services that ran from the city. Exeter’s Railways also includes a detailed examination of passenger services through the so-called ‘golden era’ of rail travel, the decline after the Second World War and the post-privatisation revival of recent years.
Freight services are also considered and there is a detailed look at the locomotives that hauled the trains and the engine sheds where they were based. The story is supported by some recollections and more than 320 photographs, maps, diagrams and items of printed ephemera. Hardback. 224 pages.