- Beautifully illustrated throughout with period photographs, line drawings and maps
- Historically rich in detail with previously unpublished photographs
- Written by an expert on the subject with fifty books to his credit
- Superbly written and researched, this is essential for the historian, train enthusiast and modeller
The Southern Since 1953 is a photographic journey of the ever-changing railway scene of southern England stretching from Cornwall to the Kent Coast, which was served from 1953 to the present day by the Southern Region and its successors. When our story begins, steam west of the Portsmouth main line still reigned supreme while much of the rest of the network was served by Southern Electric.
Many of the trains at work in 1953 were of pre-1939 origin, some even dating back to the first decade of the twentieth century, although the influence of Oliver Bullied’s revolutionary semi-streamline Pacifics and high-capacity suburban EMUs pointed to the future. By 1967, diesel would replace steam, and electrification would spread, while many less well-used lines in Hampshire, Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall would close.
Electrification began in the London area in the early 1900s, expanding to the Kent, Sussex, and east Hampshire coasts, in the process creating the greatest main line electrified system in the world; this would continue to the present day. With nearly 250 images and Baker’s detailed commentaries, this volume documents the history of an iconic railway.
| BOOK ISBN |
9781781558072 |
| FORMAT |
248 x 172 mm |
| BINDING |
Paperback |
| PAGES |
140 pages |
| PUBLICATION DATE |
27 May 2021
|
| TERRITORY |
World |
| ILLUSTRATIONS |
241 colour and black-and-white photographs |
Born in Thornton Heath, Michael Baker’s first published work was about a day at a railway station in the school magazine. Over the years, he has had over fifty books on transport, places, and people published, as well as paintings exhibited in Brighton art gallery and elsewhere. He married Maeve in Dublin and had three sons—William, Daniel, and Samuel—and four grandchildren. He has travelled over all of southern England and a fair bit of the rest of the world. Michael is a member of many societies, clubs, churches, and protest groups campaigning for a better world. Baker’s first book for Fonthill Media was In and Out of Paddington: The Story of a Great Railway Station (978-1-78155-710-5).
