This book illustrates one of the country’s best loved railway companies in the days of steam. Maps, charts, timetables and photographs are used to give the reader a sense of a journey from the compact terminus in Manchester to Godley, the limits of the system, at first opening. The reader is transported back to the original London Road station, using maps, and is walked through the small station to notice the variety of engines, signals and trains that operated there. Gorton, the company’s shed and locomotive works as well as its across the track rivals of Beyer, Peacock, are studied. The railway cross-road at Guide Bridge is given due importance and readers may well ponder on the contrast of ruralness of Ardwick, Fairfield and Fallowfield, then, and now. AUTHOR: Bob Pixton is a WW2 ‘Baby Boomer’, spending his early days around Manchester’s stations and sheds. The impressions of youth persisted, despite his parents moving to the heart of GWR territory. His working career has almost exclusively been in the public sector in health, education, local democracy and youth justice. His numerous published works have mostly been line histories, often in several volumes, their extensive captions and picture selection are the result of dedicated research, in this case, of over a decade.
350 b/w photographs, maps and track diagrams