British Rail: A New History

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Although this did not eliminate all of the problems, managers grew wise to the shift to Thatcher economics rather than resisting it. Peter Parker, its chairman from 1976 to 1983, could be found doing voiceovers for BR advertisements, dressing up in drivers’ uniform for photoshoots and presenting himself for interview on national television. In fact, there is a very real effort to inject color and vibrancy into the history of Britain’s postwar railways here, with a striking sense of design and presentation that brings readers into the history of Britain’s railways in an engaging way. Born into post-war austerity, traumatised, impoverished and exploited by a hostile press, the state-owned railway was dismissed as a dinosaur unable to evolve, and swept away by a government hellbent on selling it off.

Wolmar provides a deep, though still very enjoyable and easy to read, history of British Rail as a corporate entity, discussing not only the trains and people, but also considering the politics and strategies that shaped the network.Your personal information will be properly safeguarded and processed in accordance with the requirements of privacy and data protection legislation.

A worthy scholarly work that sometimes it feels like British Rail telling its story in its own words. Certainly not the one engineered by George Stephenson – one of the first was laid down at Wollaton, near Nottingham, open by 1610, long before Stephenson's birth in 1781. But through its 50-year lifetime, British Rail transformed our transport system, and for a time provided one of the fastest regular rail services in the world.The verdant and picturesque county of Gloucestershire was once served by a maze of railway lines, most of which have long since been closed. The rise and fall of the state-owned British Rail, from "the greatest expert on British trains" Christian WolmarYou think you know British Rail. From the point of view of a railway enthusiast dating back to peak diesel, the book's biggest fault is an over-concentration on politics and details of management structures.