REVIEW OF THE MONTH
BOOK
Signals Passed at Danger
Railway Power and Politics in Britain
Richard Faulkner and Christopher Austin
Crecy Publishing Company, 1A Ringway Trading Estate, Shadowmoss Road, Manchester M22 5LH. Tel: 0161 499 0024. Website: www.crecy.co.uk Email: enquiries@crecy.co.uk Description: Hardback, 220 x 286mm, 200pp. ISBN: 9781800352568. Price £25.00.
Although it is well documented that British Railways inherited 20,000 locomotives in 1948, how many of us also know that there were 1.23 million wagons, 4,500 coaches, 25,000 horse-drawn vehicles, 52,000 miles of track, and 50,000 houses? What happened to them all? The staff total was 692,000.
These statistics are amongst thousands more included in a new analysis of how railways and politics have been inseparable bedfellows for 200 years now. In the beginning, it was overcoming landowners’ objections to track crossing their land. Then it was the ruthless corruption of Railway Mania, the rise of trade unions and strikes, nationalisation, and most recently the collapse of Railtrack.
Academic heavyweights –
