Our final extract from Bradley’s Railway Guide: A Journey through Two Centuries of British Railway History, 1825-2025 takes us to 2000… and an accident that would change the face of the railway

Today we might minimise or even overlook the railway’s significance, because it is such an established part of our lives. Yet at its height the industry employed more than half a million people across

Thousands of workers stepping off their morning train has become an enduring image of the railway. But the custom of commuting has constantly evolved, as CHRISTIAN WOLMAR reports

ABOVE: On June 2, 1980, 20066 hauls a coal train from Markam Colliery formed of mineral wagons and hoppers at Barrow Hill, having just come off the line from Hall Lane Junction and Seymour Junction. C

Mark Pearce’s

St Rollox has a place in the hearts ...