£45.00

LIMITED PRINT RUN H/B FREE POSTAGE ISBN: 9781911038962

This book charts the developments of the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway through the Southern Railway to British Rail, from Brighton to Coulsdon North, with particular focus on a signalling perspective. With a wealth of illustrative detail, the historical progress of the railway is recounted – from steam to electric motive power, and mechanical to colour light signalling – using original documents and photographs from national and regional archives, supplemented by material from personal collections including the author’s own. Whilst the author’s technical and professional expertise as a signalling engineer is employed to the full, this book is also about a way of life. Giving access to the proudly polished interiors of historic signal boxes with glimpses of signalmen’s domestic routines, the triumphs and tribulations of life in the S&T (Signalling and Telecommunications) maintenance department, and the liaisons with fellow departments, this book is as much a history of railwaymen as of the railway. The story of the surrounding landscape encroaches, too: the railway adjusts from racegoers to airport traffic at Gatwick and accommodates the building of a motorway; signal boxes encased in brick protect against wartime air raids; elements of the skyline change whilst others remain. 

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Product Code: LITN348