Steam trains came to Nottinghamshire when the Midland Railway was formed in 1832. Encouraged by the owners of coal mines, tracks were soon pushed out from Nottingham to join up with other main lines and branch lines proliferated. Never before had coal had such a swift and reliable route to customers in Britain and overseas.
George Stephenson, the famous railway pioneer and engineer was given the task of building a line linking Nottingham with Lincoln. it was 32 and 3/4 miles long and took only 8 months to complete.
One local legend has it that the branch line connecting Southwell with Rolleston Junction on the Nottingham to Lincoln line - a good journey of 2 1/2 miles - was sometimes done without a fireman. Apparently it was common for the driver to let his fireman off on the outward trip to pick mushrooms, shoot rabbits or poach a pheasant or a partridge, and pick him up again on the return journey, with none the wiser. This anecdote and many more stories like it together with the collection of old photographs make this book a fascinating insight into the Golden Age of Steam.
A4 (softcover) 128 pages
