The South Western main line is one of the most important railways in the
south of England.
Colin Boocock spent a significant part of his life living on and
researching the history of this center of railway operations in the
South and South West of England.
This book looks at the network over the last seventy years, from
Nationalization through to the present day. The system provides a vital
link between the South and South West of Britain and London, operating a
mixture of commuter services and important main line passenger trains.
Throughout the seventy years covered in this book, the South Western
network also had significant flows of heavy freight between the capital
and Southampton Docks and the West Country. Today there are still
frequent, well-loaded container trains from Southampton to the Midlands
and the North via Basingstoke and Reading.
This volume also covers the transitions from steam traction to diesel
and electric in stages from the 1950s through to the late 1980s