Railways and Recollections: 1966

It was the year England won the World Cup. But it was also the year when railway stations, branch lines and steam engines were being scrapped at an unprecedented rate. In 1966, Britain was rapidly changing - and so were its railways. The twin effects of the Modernisation Plan of 1954 and the Beeching Report of 1963 were now starting to bite - the former seeing steam locomotion replaced by diesels and electric motive power and the latter responsible for the wholesale closure of stations and branch lines. This volume of the popular Railways & Recollections series documents these changes, thanks to the atmospheric black and white photographs of railwayman and steam enthusiast, Ray Ruffell. He knew the writing was on the wall for a mode of transport that we had all taken for granted and he was determined to document it before it was too late. As a result, he travelled the length and breadth of Britain to capture the wonderful images that we reproduce here.