Pen & Sword Transport – ISBN: 9781526714732
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Britains-Last-Mechanical-Signalling-Hardback/p/16355
Almost a century after the first colour light signals appeared on Britain’s railways in the early 1920s there are still a considerable number of places where the passage of trains is controlled by the Victorian technology of a signaller in a signal box pulling a mechanical lever that will tug up to ¾ mile of wire that then moves a signal arm up or down.
Replacement of mechanical signalling has been going on in earnest since the 1960s and continues apace, with losses over the past couple of years at Blackpool, North Wales, Humberside, and at a number of locations in Scotland. Next to go will be the delightful Wherry Lines between Norwich, Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft. Continue reading “Gareth’s next book – out now!”
When it comes to provincial railway revivals in England, there cannot be anything to match the scale of transformation that has taken place on the 15½-mile long Chase Line in Staffordshire over the 30 years, since an initial ten-mile section from Walsall to Hednesford was re-opened in 1989.
Just three weeks after my previous failed attempt to sample the summer Saturday SWR service to Weymouth and Corfe Castle (6 July), it is profoundly disappointing to have suffered a similar experience again on Saturday (27 July)
A day-out by train from Cheltenham Spa to Bridgnorth, on the wonderful Severn Valley Railway, meant another chance to spend an interesting time waiting for my connecting train at Worcester Shrub Hill, where the usual diet of West Midlands Class 170 units coming and going was interspersed with the chance to see some rare freight action. 
Rover and ranger tickets are a great way to see parts of the country by public transport at a bargain price so, having once travelled the entire 268-mile Cornish rail network in a single day for the price of a Ride Cornwall ticket (£10.00 at the time), I felt it was high time to try something similar in the charming Cotswolds.
