num_pages: 288
description: This book is the concluding volume, of the five volume series which together form the most comprehensive history of the Isle of Wight railways ever to be published.The Isle of Wight Railways from 1923 onwards, begins with the formation of the Southern Railway and the acquisition of 55¼ miles of railway, a pier at Ryde and two of the three main ferry routes between the mainland and the Island. The Company transformed a disparate group of lines into a self-contained integrated network with greatly improved stations, locomotives and rolling stock. Wartime shortages and neglect were only partly overcome before Nationalisation in 1948 and the start of a lengthy period of decline. Most of the Island railway network closed between 1952 and 1966 and the Ryde Pier tramway followed in 1969.In 1967 the remaining 8½ mile railway from Ryde to Shanklin reopened after electrification operated with second-hand London Transport tube stock. The line has survived to see its rolling stock renewed in 1989 and the granting of a franchise in 1996.Railway preservation began in a small way in 1966, but has steadily developed to become an operating steam railway from Wootton to Havenstreet and Smallbrook Junction worked by a historic collection of locomotives and carriages.
language: English
title: The Isle Of Wight Railways: From 1923 Onwards
publisher: The Oaskwood Press