Written by John Buxton and Don Heath, two experienced rail professionals, Lines of Power delivers a comprehensive record of the stuttering progress of electrification and modernisation of Britain's railway network, exposing the furtive manoeuvring by competing factions within the railway industry during the 1950s.

The book is highly critical of the excessive scepticism of the Department of Transport (DoT later DfT) and the frequent disproportionate, and often imprudent, interventions by politicians that have collectively thwarted the opportunity to progress a more comprehensive and cost effective 'rolling programme' of electrification.