Pit to power station

By Chris Booth

THIS latest book from railway author Chris Booth is both useful and valuable, in that it deals with a significant era of massive change on our railways when our coal industry gradually ceased to exist and the national railway network was privatised. The author had a railway career in signalling based around Worksop in the East Midlands, and he devoted a great deal of time to recording and documenting an important, but soon to vanish, industrial railway operation.

After setting the scene in the 1980s, the creation of the new privatised rail freight companies is chronicled, together with the changes in rail operations that followed and the ensuing terminal longterm decline in the once-mighty UK coal industry.

The major collieries in Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Leicestershire and Staffordshire are explored in considerable detail with regard to operations – together with the essential traffic to the power stations – frequently accompanied by the author’s fascinating personal reminiscences and anecdotes.

The book is lavishly illustrated with numerous coloured photographs, location maps, track diagrams and information tables. It is a must for anyone with an interest in our constantly changing rail industry and the sad decline of ‘King Coal’. Strongly recommended. RSS

Published by Fonthill Media www.fonthillmedia.com

256 pages, softback. £20.00