Impermanent Ways 15 : Across The Shires

This the fifteenth volume in the Impermanent Ways series, one of the most enduring and admired collections of railway titles published in recent years, is also a departure for the series as hitherto, volumes have focused on lost lines and infrastructure in different counties or geographically defined areas of the country.  However, the latest addition to the series is something of a departure from previous books in that it focuses not upon the disused stations of one or two counties but instead ranges across the country from the South Coast to the Scottish Highlands to examine some of the wider aspects of railway infrastructure which has been lost including signalboxes and former steam motive power depots. It also takes a brief look at the scene in the North West of England in 1968, the final year of BR''s steam operations.  One or two routes featured in these pages, such as that from Bristol to Severn Beach and Ashford to Hastings, which are still operational today, are covered, albeit the current views of these now very basic railways shows how much has been lost since they were in their prime and how very different they are today from the way they looked 50 years ago.