In this pictorial review of the Railways of Leicestershire in the Twenty-first Century author, John Jackson, looks at the contemporary rail scene of the county of Leicestershire, examining the wide variety of traffic at work on the county’s main lines in the 21st century, and briefly looking at the role played by the Brush workshops in Loughborough.
Despite Leicestershire’s railways being drastically reduced by the Beeching cuts, Leicester sits at an important railway crossroads. With Derby and Nottingham to the north, and London to the south, the line linking Sheffield and St Pancras is crossed in Leicester by one of England’s most important east–west link lines, so allowing rail passengers to access Peterborough and Cambridge to the east, and Birmingham to the west. In addition to this it now plays an increasingly important role as a freight route to and from East Anglia, as well as connecting the UK’s largest container port at Felixstowe with a number of terminals across the country. Whilst the line between Leicester and Burton-on-Trent has lost its passenger service, it still remains an important access route to the quarries in the area around Coalville.
An introduction to the railways of Leicestershire is followed by a diagrammatic map of the railway network covered. The photographs are generally presented in two-per-page format and are accompanied by an informative caption.
176 colour photographs. 96 pages.