Returning to give an illustrated talk on the next volume of the British Railway History series, Neil Parkhouse will visit Rossiter Books in Ross-on-Wye on Thursday, February 15th at 7pm.

Neil will be telling the story of the Gloucester Midland Lines.

In 1845, the Midland Railway, formed only a year earlier, outflanked and outbid the Great Western Railway for the purchase of the Birmingham & Gloucester and Bristol & Gloucester railways, who themselves had just agreed to amalgamate as the Birmingham & Bristol Railway. As a result, the railway map of Gloucestershire was to have a Midland red spine, with an important and busy main line running through the county from Ashchurch in the north to Yate in the south and with numerous branches breaking off from it. It also served to turn Gloucester in to one of the country’s great railway centres of the steam age, where the Midland had a separate station, goods yards, dock system and locomotive shed.

Tickets are £3 and can be purchased from www.ticketsource.co.uk/date/437970