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York, Swindon, Crewe, Derby, Peterborough, Wolverton and Eastleigh are very different places, cities and towns spread across Britain. From ancient cathedral cities to metropolises that barely existed two centuries ago, they all share one thing; they are amongst Britain’s railway towns. 

Railway towns owed their economic success and booming populations to the arrival and patronage of the railways. To be a true railway town, it wasn’t enough to be served by the railways; instead, the railways forged entire communities by concentrating factories, workshops and repair yards in a single location.

It isn’t surprising that the railways had the power to create towns and even cities: by 1900 over 620,000 people (just under 5% of the entire population) worked for the railways. Millions more were dependent on their wages, spending and the ancillary economic growth they brought.

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It was the dawn of a new age for Britain’s steam-powered trains. After years of neglect and underinvestment, the railways would be revitalised and the country would regain its position stoking the furnace of innovation and enterprise. Thousands of brand new steam engines were ordered to haul Britain back into pole position.

Over the next 12 years, 2,500 engines were produced in workshops across the country – literal cast-iron commitments to a belief in the future of steam traction. Streamlined and standardised designs were developed, reducing running costs and improving reliability. Everything was in place for a new golden age of steam.

The glaring flaw in the plan was that it came some fifty years to late. The modernisation plan was launched in 1948, when the rest of Europe was steadily abandoning steam in favour of diesel and electric-powered trains. Whilst war-shattered continental networks were being rebuilt, electrified and modernised, Britain’s railways were patched up and upgraded on the cheap.

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