In this book John Whiteley provides a photographic survey of modern traction in the North of England in the last years of British Rail and the first years of privatisation. The photographs cover the period from the early 1960s to the 1990s. At the start of this period BR was divided into regions, with the North of England covered by the London Midland Region and North Eastern Region, and Rail Blue became the predominant livery during the 1960s. Sectorisation in the 1980s brought visible changes to the railways, including new liveries and motive power, and this process was accelerated in the decade of privatisation in the 1990s. The area covered ranges from northern Derbyshire and northern Cheshire, including Chester, to Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumbria and up to the Scottish border, as well as in and around Manchester and Liverpool.

This photographic survey of two decades of modern traction in a period of great change in the railways of the North of England will appeal to all those with an interest in the history of the railways of this region.