* The Lost Lines of England series documents a lost age of steam-train travel which thrived from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century.

* An informative, accessible and portable resource for the train enthusiast as well as the general reader, and a superb souvenir or gift for visitors past and present.

* Photo illustrated throughout, including many archive images which are appearing in print for the first time.

The 55-mile rail route between Birmingham and Oxford is still an important artery for the Nation’s passenger and freight traffic. Trains from the north of England routed through Birmingham can gain direct access southwards to Reading, and thereby to the south coast.

The photographs in this book, though, recall a time up to the mid-1960s when it was an altogether different railway. These were the dying days of steam and of equipment and working practices developed from Victorian times.