The advertising was definitely one of the success of the company, even the 'Let the train take the strain' slogan is commonly mentioned in conversations too! Along the way, we take in the phasing out of steam (and why, unlike many other countries we mostly converted to diesel), the infamous Beeching cuts of the network in the 1960s, successes such as the 125 mile per hour High Speed Train with the InterCity brand and more. A worthy scholarly work that sometimes it feels like British Rail telling its story in its own words.

This book works very well at offering just enough material to let the reader know what advances or differences there were but also making sure the reader understands how these railways fit within the larger picture, which county rails used what and for what reason.To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Wolmar explains clearly how from the 1970s this new breed of manager worked to change the century old methods of operation and management, tackled employment and industrial relations and took on the state. In fact, there is a very real effort to inject color and vibrancy into the history of Britain’s postwar railways here, with a striking sense of design and presentation that brings readers into the history of Britain’s railways in an engaging way.

I particularly liked the challenges to the misguided belief that BR was exclusively and permanently inefficient. The Financial Times and its journalism are subject to a self-regulation regime under the FT Editorial Code of Practice. It goes a long way to dispel the popular image of British Rail in politics and the media as a bloated state run agency, providing poor service and value for money. Wolmar reminds us that this was merely the peak of a continuous retrenchment drive, which saw successive rounds of station and branch-line closures, staffing reductions and sales of assets, including the fifty-four hotels, the multi-million-pound wine cellar and the handful of golf courses BR had inherited from the Big Four.

The thing that should worry those who use Britain’s trains is that none of these figures actually represent the railways. The narrative does not flow at all, short one-sentence paragraphs are frequently inserted completely out of context. They are former BR chairman Peter Parker’s memoirs and also David Lawrence’s book on British Rail design. In British Rail: A New History, Wolmar argues that, despite its many imperfections, Britain’s railway in the postwar period was a responsive and forward-thinking organization, maintaining that it was a “victim of its history and of the whim of politicians who had little understanding about its achievements and, indeed, its real failings” (xv). Born into post-war austerity, traumatised, impoverished and exploited by a hostile press, the state-owned railway was dismissed as a dinosaur unable to evolve, and swept away by a government hellbent on selling it off.

The book is packed with important information about how BR was run and, more importantly, how it evolved and improved itself over time. His successor, Robert Reid, had a direct line to the secretary of state for transport, with whom he went shooting, and was on first-name terms with Denis Thatcher. The verdant and picturesque county of Gloucestershire was once served by a maze of railway lines, most of which have long since been closed. The book cover has no visible wear, and the dust jacket (if applicable) is included for hard covers.The majority of pages are undamaged with some creasing or tearing, and pencil underlining of text, but this is minimal. Whichever one, his videos of passing locomotives (or more often of himself, with the odd snort of a diesel engine in the background) have garnered tens of millions of views. For two decades after the war, BR persisted with expensive, polluting and labour-intensive steam locomotives, not wishing to go to war with the trade unions in either the rail or coal sectors. In this comprehensive history, Colin Maggs, one of the country's foremost railway historians, tells the story of over 400 years of British railway history. He itemises the poor decisions taken by BR that left the railways in Britain lagging behind their continental equivalents.

If the service that you require is not shown, please get in touch with us and we can quote for your desired service. The first half examines the newly nationalized industry through postwar austerity, arguing that it suffered from an “inheritance” of materials from World War II that made managing the “asset-heavy industry” difficult (55). Despite the flawed “Modernization Plan,” which had undermined confidence in railway management and its abilities to deliver a modern railway, management faced an ongoing struggle against a growing deficit through rising staff costs as well as increasing competition from cars and lorries. Managers had, after a number of years in the immediate postwar period and particularly after the 1965 modernization, learned to respond to political flak and efficiently defended the organisation. I certainly have vague memories of British Rail and of course the iconic double arrow logo still lives on today.The rise and fall of the state-owned British Rail, from "the greatest expert on British trains" Christian Wolmar Her voyage as an apprentice astronaut began when she was in her early thirties: five years of intense training around the world, from Houston to Japan to the legendary Star City in Russia. For instance, the engineering drawings for a sophisticated artificial leg, which are going to be manufactured at the Crewe locomotive works for issue to injured employees, are featured on the first spread, and on the following page, the architectural sketches for a church in Crewe, which was paid for by LNWR to serve the local community of railway workers, are featured. Such an insightful look at the history of the state owned company from its nationalisation of the big four train operators in 1948 to privatisation in the early 1990's.