This fifteenth volume in the Impermanent Ways series examines some of the wider aspects of railway infrastructure which have long since disappeared from the railway network. In something of a departure from previous books in the series which have featured specific areas, this volume focuses not upon the disused stations of one or two counties but instead crosses the country from the South Coast to the Scottish Highlands.
Impermanent Ways Volume 15: Across the Shires contains a selection of archive images, mainly in colour, featuring signal boxes and former steam motive power depots as well as the more familiar selection of stations and general railway scenes from the past. It also takes a brief look at the rail scene in the North West of England in 1968, the final year of British Railways’ steam operations.
One or two of the routes featured, such as those from Bristol to Severn Beach and Ashford to Hastings, which are still operational today, are illustrated by more recent views, demonstrating how little evidence now exists of some former railways. Shows just how much has been lost since those railways were in their prime and how very different they are today from the way they looked 50 years ago. 104 pages. 160 photographs.