At the peak of Britain's first generation tramways, it was possible to travel by tram all the way from Pier Head at Liverpool to the Pennines in Rochdale by tram. Amongst the chain of tramways that formed these links were the services that operated in Bolton, St Helens, Wigan and the company lines controlled by South Lancashire Tramways. Each of these systems had a fascinating history but all were to suffer greatly as a result of lack of maintenance during and after World War I and from bus competition with the result that only one ? Bolton ? survived into the post-World War II era. AUTHOR: Brought up in Bradford, Peter Waller grew up witnessing the gradual decline of the city's trolleybus network. He studied history at university and also has a master's degree in Industrial Archaeology. In 1986, he began a career in publishing, working for a number of years for Ian Allan Publishing Ltd, where he oversaw the commissioning and publication of a wide range of books. His first book, British and Irish Tramway Systems since 1945, was published in 1992 and since then he has written extensively on transport subjects. Moving to Shropshire in 2007, he is now a full-time author and editor as well as being a director and secretary of the Online Transport Archive.