The counties of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire form the north-western edge of East Anglia, part of the historic Fenland region. Building railways in the fens produced a different set of challenges, there were no steep gradients and no need for tunnels, however the marshy terrain needed bridging, sometimes with structures capable of opening to allow the passage of boats. Although the railways in these two counties were mainly Great Eastern Railway-dominated, other companies also ran lines through them.
In Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire’s Lost Railways the author, Neil Burgess, has produced a pictorial record featuring archive photographs of stations and lines, located on passenger-carrying railways in these counties, which were subject to closure during the 1850s to the 1960s. Also included are images from stations and lines located on railways still open to passengers, which had stations closed in the 1960s. The book features the line at Wisbech & Upwell, which in the 1880s became the first roadside tramway in Britain.
The author observes that in general the older (and perhaps more important) routes still remain open, while later additions to the network are usually the ones which have succumbed to closure.
Lines featured are:
- Cambridge to Bedford
- Cambridge to Mildenhall
- Cambridge to Newmarket
- Ely to March and Peterborough
- Ely to Newmarket
- Great Chesterford to Newmarket
- Hitchin to Cambridge
- Hitchin to Peterborough (East Coast Main Line)
- Holme to Ramsey
- Kettering to Huntingdon and Cambridge
- March to Magdalen Road
- March to Spalding
- Peterborough to Seaton
- Peterborough to Sutton Bridge
- St Ives to Ely
- St Ives to March
- Somersham to Ramsey
- Wisbech to Upwell
51 black & white photographs. 48 pages.