Rails from Shrewsbury: A Pictorial Journey, 1970s-2012

Shrewsbury station, located at the junction of the lines from Chester, Crewe, Wolverhampton, Hereford and Aberystwyth is a busy and interesting railway center for the enthusiast. Many train movements are still controlled by semaphore signals operated from a number of signal boxes, including the largest remaining operational mechanical signal box in the world at Severn Bridge Junction. Nevertheless, modernization has been gradually sweeping away much of the railway infrastructure, both at Shrewsbury and in the surrounding area, as it has been everywhere else.

This book looks at Shrewsbury itself, the lines that radiate from there, and the trains that ran on them, in the late twentieth and the early part of the twenty-first century. During this time period, much more general railway infrastructure and mechanical signaling was still in use, and locomotive-hauled trains were abundant, using a variety of motive power, including Classes 25, 31, 33, 37 and 47. The various freight lines that saw traffic are also visited.

The railway from Newport through Hereford and Shrewsbury to Chester, in particular, saw regular steam-hauled special trains, a few of which are illustrated here. Preserved railways in the area are not forgotten, including the Severn Valley Railway which once ran from Sutton Bridge Junction at Shrewsbury to Hartlebury, between Kidderminster and Droitwich Spa.