Surrey's Lost Railways

Although close to London, Surrey was a backwater due to its poor roads until it opened up in the 19th century by the coming of the railways. Routes to Brighton and Southampton were the first targets and then later a network of commuter routes was developed. Lines were built speculatively- nobody knew for sure which ones would be the winners and the losers and hence when faced with competition from buses and cars and lorries economics forced various lines to close. Burgess' book is a good introduction to Surrey railway history and has dates of openings and closures and other vital statistics. As ever in the series, the book is well illustrates with archive photographs of closed stations.