The Beeching Legacy Vol 1 : The West Country
Philip Horton
The year 1963 saw the publication of the infamous 'Beeching Report', The Reshaping of British Railways. In fact, this 'reshaping' involved the radical downsizing of the existing rail network – hundreds of stations would be closed to both freight and passenger traffic together with thousands of miles of track, while many staff would lose their jobs. This series looks at the background to the Report, and how it affected different parts of the country. This volume covers west Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, listing and describing all the lines that closed, the well-researched text supported by maps and contemporary photographs and timetables. It also lists pre-Beeching closures, lines that closed despite not being listed in the Report, those that survived the Report, and the numerous wayside stations that closed on the lines that remained open.In 1963 most places in the West Country were within easy reach of a railway station. By the end of the decade all that had changed. This book attempts to catalogue what was lost and what remains.
