SOMETIMES you come across a lofty railway viaduct, marooned in the
middle of a remote country landscape. Or a crumbling platform from some
once-bustling junction buried under the buddleia. If you are lucky you
might be able to follow some rusting tracks, or explore an old tunnel
leading to...well, who knows where? Listen hard. Is that the wind in the
undergrowth? Or the spectre of a train from a golden era of the past
panting up the embankment?
These are the ghosts of The Trains Now Departed. They are the
railway lines, and services that ran on them that have disappeared and
gone forever. Our lost legacy includes lines prematurely axed, often
with a gripping and colourful tale of their own, as well as marvels of
locomotive engineering sent to the scrapyard, and grand termini felled
by the wrecker's ball. Then there are the lost delights of train travel,
such as haute cuisine in the dining car, the grand expresses with their
evocative names, and continental boat trains to romantic far-off places.
The Trains Now Departed tells the stories of some of the most
fascinating lost trains of Britain, vividly evoking the glories of a
bygone age. In his personal odyssey around Britain Michael Williams
tells the tales of the pioneers who built the tracks, the yarns of the
men and women who operated them and the colourful trains that ran on
them. It is a journey into the soul of our railways, summoning up a
magic which, although mired in time, is fortunately not lost for ever.
THIS EDITION REVISED AND UPDATED TO INCLUDE MAPS.
