Di Drummond's concise and informative guide to Britain's railways will be
absorbing reading for anyone who wants to learn about the history of the
industry and for family history researchers who want to find out about the
careers of their railway ancestors.
In a clear and accessible way she guides readers through the social,
technical and economic aspects of the story. She describes in vivid detail the
rapid growth, maturity and long decline of the railways from the earliest days
in the late eighteenth century to privatization in the 1990s. In the process she
covers the themes and issues that family historians, local historians and
railway enthusiast will need to understand in order to pursue their research.
A sequence of fact-filled chapters gives an all-round view of the development
of the railways. In addition to tracing the birth and growth of the original
railway companies, she portrays the types of work that railwaymen did and pays
particular attention to the railway world in which they spent their working
lives.
She also introduces the reader to the variety of records that is available
for genealogical research - staff record and registers, publications, census
returns, biographies and autobiographies, and the rest of the extensive
literature devoted to the railway industry.
This guide covers the British railway companies, the Nationalized railways,
and the Railway Unions, providing the reader with up-to-date information on the
archives, records and websites useful for researching your railway ancestors and
railway history.
Contents:
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Tracing Your Railway Ancestors
Part 1: Britain's Railway History
1. Britain's Early Railway History
2. Britain's Nineteenth Century Railways
3. The Twentieth Century, 1900-45
4. The Twentieth Century, 1947-94
Part 2. Working on the Railway
5. An Overview of the Railway Workforce 1820-1990s
6. Women on the Railways
7. The Railway Builders
8. The Changing Working Life of Railway Operating Staff
9. The Changing Working Life on Stations, Good Yards, in Offices and on the
Tracks
10. Working Life in Railway Manufacturing and Maintenance Workshops
Part 3. Researching Your Railway Ancestors
11. Getting Started
12. British Railway Company Archives at The National Archives
13. British Parliamentary Papers
14. Railway Trade-Union Records
15. The National Railway Museum Collection, Local Archives and Libraries
16. Published Historical Sources
17. Maps, Illustrations and Film
Index
