The Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Light Railway, was one of the lines managed and operated by Colonel Holman Fred Stephens from his office in Salford Terrace in Tonbridge Kent. It was a revival of the long disused Potteries Shrewsbury & North Wales Railway, a railway that went bankrupt shortly after opening in the mid 1860s and was left derelict for forty years. The railway reopened in 1911 to much local rejoicing, however the company was in financial difficulties by the 1920s and withdrew its passenger services in the early 1930s. During the Second World War the army took over the railway, constructing ammunition and stores depots along its entire length. After the war the railway continued to be operated by the army until closed in 1960, when it was handed over to the Western Region of British Railways for demolition. The author has researched the history of this fascinating bucolic railway over many years. In this new book he presents much previously unpublished information and many fascinating insights into the railway’s complicated history.

Situated in the Welsh borderland to the West of Oswestry, the scenic Tanat Valley reached westwards into Wales, its Llangynog terminus nestling where the road starts the climb over the Berwyn mountain range towards Bala. It was a lightly populated area that sustained agriculture and some mineral extraction whose residents struggled to get their produce to market. During the 19th Century there were several schemes for a railway that failed due their inability to raise sufficient capital. The Tanat Valley Light Railway is, therefore, a true child of the 1896 Light Railways Act, promoted by the Oswestry Urban District Council the following year to take advantage of the grant-making facilities of that legislation. Because it took so long to obtain powers, and it was not opened until 1906, the Light Railway never really fulfilled its potential. Operated initially by the Cambrian Railways, it was not heavily worked, although it benefited from pipe traffic generated by renewals of Liverpool Corporation’s Vyrnwy reservoir pipeline. Although closure came in stages during the 1950s, and was deemed to be complete in 1960, a short section of track remains in situ at Porthywaen. Author Peter Johnson has drawn on the material available at the National Archives at Kew and the Parliamentary Archives in the House of Lords as well as conducting extensive research in digitised newspapers to tell the Light Railway’s story, producing the first in-depth account of its development, operation and closure. Peter Johnson is also the author of The Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Light Railway – the rise and fall of a rural byway, published by Pen & Sword Transport in 2024. The two railways were connected at Blodwel Junction and the surviving section of the Tanat Valley Light Railway thence to Porthywaen enabled stone traffic on the Shropshire & Montgomeryshire’s Nantmawr branch to continue until 1971.

First published in 1985 by Moorland Press, The Light Railways of Britain & Ireland has remained unavailable for more than twenty-five years, until now. Re-released by Pen & Sword, this is a thorough and engaging book that covers, in depth, the fascinating story of Britain's last railway development, the Rural light railways, constructed as a result of the Light Railways Act 1896. Rigorously detailed, it charts the overall history of the last great railway boom in Britain Ð the light railway boom Ð from 1896, to the beginning of the Great War in 1914. During this period a large number of narrow and standard gauge lines were constructed in both Britain and Ireland, in order to serve and open up areas in both countries that, at the time, lacked adequate transport links. This book tells the story of how these lines were constructed and why, in most cases, they eventually failed, due to post-First World War road competition. Authored by two highly acclaimed writers of transport history, this is a true testament to, and a timely reminder of, Britain's last railway development.

The Directory of British Railway Companies of Great Britain is a record of all the companies who sought to build a railway in Great Britain, both successful and unsuccessful. The Directory contains a full list of every company that obtained an Act of Parliament for the construction of a railway. If a railway was built without an Act of Parliament and played a part in the greater picture of Great Britain’s railway system, it is also included, which gives a fascinating glimpse into Great Britain’s colourful public transportation history. Readers will learn about each railway’s origin, opening, route, gauge and growth and its amalgamation with others, and find out which grouping company it finally ended up in. In an interesting additional section, the routes that unfinished railways and railways that never came to fruition would have taken are also included. The Directory of British Railway Companies of Great Britain has been meticulously researched, and as a result includes all railways, built or not, in the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands and Scottish Islands. Also included are brief descriptions of the most pertinent Acts relating to railways in Great Britain, providing readers with an insight into the complicated legal processes involved in the creation of a railway. The Directory of British Railway Companies of Great Britain is an all-in-one, easy to access and invaluable reference source. It will appeal to historians and transportation enthusiasts alike, as well as those who have always wondered how Great Britain’s railways came to be.

An examination of four hundred years of railways in Shropshire, from the primitive wagonways of the pre-railway age to the county's current rail network and services. Fully illustrated with almost two hundred monochrome and colour photos, Shropshire Railways is an ideal resource for anyone with an interest in this county with its rich railway history, and home to one of Britain's top heritage railways. Including detailed route maps and a survey of timetables over the years, the book covers the pre-railway age and the coming of the main lines, with the opening of the Shrewsbury and Chester railway in 1848; the 'grouping' of the railway companies from 1923 - the Great Western Railway (GWR) and London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) era in the county; the British Railways period from 1948-1994 - nationalization and modernization, passenger and freight trains, and locomotive sheds; the minor lines, the industrial railways and the heritage railways; privatization and the current main line scene. Illustrated with 205 colour and black & white photographs and maps.

Holman Fred Stephens (1868-1931) set himself up in the 1890s as an engineer and manager of the complete light railway as evolved by Victorian theorists to serve rural districts as yet bereft of the benefit of cheaper transport. To them, a light railway was not an assemblage of second-hand mainline equipment of dubious merit but of fit for purpose, new material. This ideal theory did not survive the near universal inability to raise sufficient capital to build and equip a light railway that would give a reasonable profit. Recourse was therefore made to the second-hand market. Stephens became a master at the art of building and running railways with the minimum of capital. The history of the mechanical performance of his railways was also nearly always handicapped with inadequate engineering facilities. This left staff struggling, often surprisingly successfully, with a menagerie of locomotive types. Limited standardisation was practised but most often expediency ruled. This gave rise to a glorious kaleidoscope of locomotives the history of each of which is outlined This variety was further colored by Stephens generally regarding a locomotive name as far more important than its number.