The Reshaping of British Railways is a piece of railway history every dedicated enthusiast will want in their collection. Bradshaw's Guide has given birth to a wave of nostalgia for our Victorian & Edwardian railway systems. The Reshaping of British Railways another facsimile which will fascinate train buffs is the document that decimated these systems forever. With the British Rail company's failure by the early 1960s to stem the network's huge annual losses the government turned to Dr Richard Beeching. He was to save money by recommending the cutting of redundant routes & services. His two reports The Reshaping of British Railways (1963) & The Development of the Major Railway Trunk Routes (1965) were published by the British Railways Board in 1965 & offer a fascinating snapshot of our nation's railways. In the first part of this historic facsimile Dr Beeching identifies the 2 363 stations & 5 000 miles (8 000 km) of railway line for closure
- over 50% of all stations & 30% of route miles. The second part recommends a small number of major remaining routes for significant investment. Well documented nationwide protests resulted in the saving of some stations & lines but the majority were closed as planned & Beeching's name is to this day associated with the mass closure of railways & the loss of many local services in the period that followed. Now for the first time this iconic piece of railway history is available in its entirety complete with the original tables & maps of routes deemed fit for closure.