West Midlands Railways Through Time

The West Midlands had some of Britain's premier railway lines passing through but it also had many branch lines and industrial routes serving the many towns and settlements around Birmingham, as well as feeding the factories, iron and steel works and coal mines of the area with raw materials, as well as transporting away to market the finished products of this industrious region. From the West Coast Main Line to the industrial heartland of England, Ray Shill uses just a part of his fantastic collection to portray the railways of the West Midlands, giving us a feel of just how busy they once were. Many places have lost their railway line, and the reason it once existed. What is important are not just the images themselves but the backgrounds which show a changed West Midlands, where the industry has gone and been replaced by modern factory units or housing, or even remain as brown field sites.