<< Return to book overview
By Rupert Matthews
Display preferences:
Use the options below to adjust the size, style and colors, and click 'Apply' below.
How the Steam Railways Came to Surrey
by
Rupert Matthews
Published by Bretwalda Books at Smashwords
Copyright © Rupert Matthews 2010
An illustrated version of this book is available in print from www.amazon.co.uk
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
ISBN 978-1-907791-17-8
Contents
Introduction
Steam Comes to Surrey
Building the Main Lines
The Surrey Industrial Boom
The Leisure Lines
The Coming of the Commuters
The Great Wars
The End of an Era
Introduction
When I was a boy I lived on the north facing hill outside Esher that overlooks the main line from London to Portsmouth and Southampton. It had been built in 1838 by the London and Southampton Railway, later to become the famous London and South Western Railway (LSWR). From our front garden you could see the trains thundering back and forth along the embankment that ran like a stripe across the landscape. By then, of course, the glory days of steam in Surrey were long gone. It was electric trains that raced back and forth. But the odd steam train did go by, the plume of smoke drifting up into the air to disperse over the landscape.