A pictorial history of the railways of Cumbria – a county served by no fewer than sixteen pre-grouping railway companies, seven of these in Carlisle alone. Routes included the great Anglo-Scottish lines of the London and North Western and the Midland, and the impressive trans-Pennine routes of the North Eastern Railway, from Newcastle to Carlisle, and Darlington to Tebay and Penrith.
The Cumbrian coast presented a quite different picture, with multiple competing companies concerned principally with the transport of coal and mineral ores to serve the huge industrial complexes to the west and south. In the Whitehaven/Workington hinterland were a number of other railways, all concerned with mineral extraction and transport.
Further lines penetrated the interior of the Lake District including the Coniston, Lakeside and Windermere branches and the Cockermouth, Keswick & Penrith Railway that crossed the Lake District from west to east. To the north were the Caledonian Railway, the short-lived Solway Junction Railway, and the North British with its Waverley, Port Carlisle, and Silloth lines. The Glasgow and South Western also ran trains to Glasgow.
Railways of Cumbria looks briefly at the history, development, and in some cases closure of each of these lines in turn, illustrated with a selection of photographs from different periods in their history. Over 150 photographs and two maps. 96 pages.