British Railways The First 25 Years Volume 2: The West Midlands

This volume looks at the West Midlands, starting at Rugby and following the two main ex-L&NWR routes as far as Stafford on the West Coast main line, and to Coventry, Birmingham New Street and Wolverhampton. The former Midland Railway lines from Burton to Bromsgrove via Birmingham and the Camp Hill line are covered alongside extensive chapters on New Street station Snow Hill station, together with their associated suburban routes. The picture selection ranges from 'Coronations', 'Princesses' and 'Royal Scots' on the West Coast main line and 'Kings' and 'Castles' on the Western Region expresses, to the humble freight engines trudging through the industrial areas. There are early diesel prototypes on the LMR, the newly introduced DMUs on the suburban lines, the glamorous 'Blue Pullman', gleaming new 'Western' hydraulics and the short lived 'Lion' prototype. More mundane diesel classes that worked the area are covered, as they took over from the ailing steam classes.