Mortons Books  |  Britain's Weirdest Railways
An amazing journey along the most unusual railways ever built in the British Isles.
The bold, the brave, the brash, the bizarre, the downright bonkers! - Robin Jones
You will never have seen a railway book like this before. Heritage Railway editor has combed the British Isles to find the country’s weirdest railways, and presented the strangest of them in one volume.
For years, conspiracy theorists talked about a secret railway network beneath Wiltshire to serve a bunker city which would haven been the seat of government ion the event of a nuclear war - and were proved right! The pictures are all in this book.
Also, did you realise that there is a secret railway running through the fairytale island of St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall, or the remains of a complete network on Steep Holm in the Bristol Channel? Brunel’s Grewat Western Railway broad gauge was years ahead of its time - and so was his atmospheric railway - but both were edged out by market forces and deficiencies of available technology.
Visit the Spurn Head Railway with its sail-powered vehicles. Look at the Volks Electric Railway in Brighton, the first electric line in Britain, and its truly bizarre sister line which had a passenger car running on stilts through the sea.
Take a trip on the world’s smallest double-tracked public railway, the Romney Hythe & Dymchurch, to Dungeness and not only find a village made from old railway carriages, but a series of strange railways laid across the shingle. See the fabulous double-ended Fairlies in action on the Ffestiniog Railway - and on the standard gauge in South Wales too!
Visit the farm lines in Lincolnshire used to carry potatoes to make Smith’s Crisps.
See the unique railways carved from stone which was used to carry granite blocks to build London Bridge. Review Britain’s plans for hover trains - and British Railway’s patent for a flying saucer - a true story! All this and much, much more is to be found in Britain’s Weirdest Railways...
read more
read less
As a subscriber you'll receive the following benefits:
• A discount off the RRP of your magazine
• Your magazine delivered to your device each month
• You'll never miss an issue
• You’re protected from price rises that may happen later in the year
You'll receive 8 issues during a 1 year Mortons Books magazine subscription.
Note: Digital editions do not include the covermount items or supplements you would find with printed copies.
Articles in this issue
Below is a selection of articles in Mortons Books Britain's Weirdest Railways.