Kicking off a special final section of Railway 200 features to round off our year of anniversary celebrations, TIM DUNN looks at how art has long been used to romanticise and promote Britain’s railways

The railway revolution opened up new destinations, expanded our culinary horizons and dramatically improved trade. Jonathan Self takes us on a whistle-stop tour of ‘railway mania’

TONY STREETER looks at how - and why - the capital’s major rail routes arrive into different termini to form a ring around the central London area

Gently tended by devoted staff, the country-station garden has become a rural idyll in its own right, says Andrew Martin

The myriad tracks and carriages of the British rail network have proved fruitful inspiration for generations of writers, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee

Although some perceived the advent of the locomotive as a threat to the countryside, by allowing artists a quick and easy way to travel, it broadened their choice of painting horizons, discovers Carla Passino