To construct their line between London Paddington to Bristol, the Great Western Railway picked the 26 year old engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Completed in 1841, and covering a distance of around 118 miles, the Great Western Mainline was affectionately known as Brunel’s billiards table due to the flat terrain of the route, selected to facilitate a faster journey time. The Great Western Mainline: A Modern Portrait is a photographic record of the modern Great Western Railway mainline, and the variety of trains to be seen running over it. The pictures were taken by the author, Jamie Anderson, between April 2017 and December 2022.
This book covers a period of enormous change on the line, starting with the withdrawal of the much-loved HST fleet and the introduction of the Hitachi 800/802 IET fleet. Along with the IET fleet’s introduction, the push for electrification of the route has brought about unprecedented changes, not only to the route itself, but also to multiple units in operation. The DMUs have largely cascaded to the west as EMUs and Class 387s have begun to dominate passenger traffic. Freight and on-track plant also feature alongside unusual visitors and railtours.
Captions accompany the images, which are all displayed in two-per-page format.
184 colour photographs. 96 pages