I thought this book would be quite dry and a slog to read but this turned out to not be the case at all. The first half examines the newly nationalized industry through postwar austerity, arguing that it suffered from an “inheritance” of materials from World War II that made managing the “asset-heavy industry” difficult (55). Even on those lines still open, almost all of the intermediate stations have disappeared from the railway map.

This history lesson is complemented by two picture sections that show the evolution of logos, national marketing, and staff uniforms. Pivotal moments including the Amalgamation of 1923 when most railway companies became part of the GWR, LMSR, or LNER, nationalization and privatization are set in their historical context. He is less good on business practices: his attempt to explain compulsory competitive tendering, for instance, will have readers turning to Google.Photographs and drawings appear at the end of the book almost as an afterthought, and with little or no direct connection to the main text. Seeing how British Rail modernised itself especially with the backdrop of more families owning cars was really interesting. Furthermore, if those who decide the allocations of the real and unreal are cruel, mad or colossally wrong, what then? Takes its time to get going, and parts of it read like long disconnected lists of line openings and closures.

No missing or damaged pages, no creases or tears, no underlining or highlighting of text, and no writing in the margins. They were trotted out every time Tory politicians banged the drum for privatisation, ammunition in a long ideological campaign against one of Britain’s last nationalised industries.

The book is packed with important information about how BR was run and, more importantly, how it evolved and improved itself over time. The rushed sell-off that ensued dismantled an organisation that had, after half a century of existence, created a workable structure that had delivered a much improved service. Still it was out of this post-Beeching period that the popular support for the railways grew and closure proposals became a lot more difficult and faced greater challenges. At the same time Wolmar notes that even with nationalisation the privatisation era fiefdoms of individual area managers were allowed to live on which hobbled many attempts at reform.