Somerset Railways

The dawning of the railway age had a massive impact on the British countryside and its inhabitants.

In Somerset, the Great Western Railway, the London and Southern Western Railway, and the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway all operated services.

This book explores scenes and locations in on the network: stations such as Chard Junction, Milborne Port, Wellow, Chilcompton and Binegar are depicted, as is Templecombe, once a crossroads where countless passengers alighted or joined trains for Waterloo, Exeter, the Midlands, the North, Devon and Cornwall, and from where freight was sent all over the country. The book of photographs also examines the countless trains that passed by in the age of steam; the purposeful "pick up" goods train, the Atlantic Coast Express, the Devon Belle and the Pines Express.

It shows how the railway companies gave communities employment and security, and how the stations, crossings and engine sheds transformed the landscape.