London Midland Region Album

Peter Baughan started working in the Parliamentary Department of the Chief Civil Engineer, London Midland Region of British Railways, at Euston in 1960. This entitled him to a First Class pass on all regions of British Railways and thus an opportunity to photograph the railway whilst doing inspections as part of his job. He was fortunate to be working at Euston, a short distance from the famous Doric Arch before it was controversially demolished in 1961, as part of the modernisation of the station. Starting at Euston, this photographic journey around the former LMR of British Railways takes us up to the Midlands and then on to the North East, the North West and finally across North Wales to finish at Holyhead. On the way, the pictures of Stephenson’s Britannia Tubular Bridge over the Menai Strait were taken just days before it was destroyed by fire. The photographs document the huge transition in the rail industry through the 1960s and ’70s, as the post-war modernisation programme began to take effect alongside the rationalisation of the network. Steam was disappearing as diesel and electric traction took over, whilst various of the lines covered within these pages, particularly the branches and secondary routes, were closing. Many of the stations depicted have gone, whilst those that have survived are mostly shadows of their former selves. The sweeping away of so much railway architecture was distressing, a fact emphasised by this photographic selection, the majority of which have never been published before.

London Midland Region Album - Sample Images