An outline of history of the Railways of Nottinghamshire

Over 170 years of railway history in one book!  All the great names are here – The Midland, Great Northern, Great Central, LMS, LNER.  They all made their mark on Nottinghamshire and Nottinghamshire contributed massively to their success.

Mr Vanns is a native of Newark-on-Trent and is a well-known and respected author in the field of railway history.  This book covers the period from the first appearance of  railways in Nottinghamshire in the 1830s, right through to the high-speed, privatised lines of today.

It is a broad time frame, yet one in which Mr Vanns is able to show how just four key elements were responsible for shaping the county’s railway map  – coal, geography, competition and politics.

They explain the reasons why, for example, the county’s premier electrified main line railway of today passes through Newark and Retford rather than through the urban centre of Nottingham; and why, in the west of the county, fast trains to Yorkshire and Lancashire again appear to by-pass the city.

Elsewhere, smaller, but no less interesting conundrums are explored.  Why, for instance, one small Nottinghamshire market town acquired no fewer than four competing railway stations, and the provocation that lay behind the ‘kidnapping’ and ‘imprisonment’ of a steam locomotive as soon as it entered Nottingham station.