Filling a gap not visited since the same authors included it in ‘British Railways Past and Present’ No 5 The West Midlands more than 20 years ago in 1987, not surprisingly this important area of the Black Country contains many interesting railways, and is here given a volume to itself for the first time, neatly complementing Andrew Doherty’s ‘Rail Around Birmingham’ series.

This volume looks in detail at:

• The former LMS Stour Valley line to Wolverhampton High Level station, with Bushbury shed and Oxley carriage depot

• The former GWR Low Level station, the GWR locomotive works and Oxley shed

• Lines and yards around Bescot

• Lines from Walsall to Rugeley, Lichfield and Sutton Coldfield

• Burton upon Trent and its network of brewery railways

• The Midland Metro route from West Bromwich to Wolverhampton

• The Trent Valley line through Tamworth and Lichfield

• Former Midland Railway lines around Tamworth

• Mineral and colliery lines

Both John Whitehouse and Geoff Dowling were born and bred in the area covered by this
book and its ‘next-door’ volume, No 61 Birmingham. Both were trainspotters in their younger years,
and both have been observing and recording the local railway scene since the early 1970s. Geoff is a
retired professional photographer formerly working within the University of Birmingham, while John,
who worked in a Birmingham bank for many years, is now well-known as a railway photographer and
journalist.