I was pleased that NetGalley had asked me to review this - I am fascinated by railways and the Beeching cuts of the sixties and as a child was lucky to go on a steam train from Waverly to Fife in thr late sixties.

The cover to start with is worth a mention and would encourage readers to pick this interesting book up.

Steeped in history -Richard Long's book takes us on a journey through the late Victorian age into the 20th century and to date with all the history and uncertainty as well as achievements documented in this book. If you want photos and data it is all there - well researched - a great account of social history.

I fell in love with the cover and was fascinated by this history book covering the history of a railway and an area since the Victorian time.
Plenty of data, lovely pictures
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Richard C Long’s The St Ives Branch Line: A History offers exactly what one would expect. Thwarted proposals to build a railway line joining the town to the main line started in 1844 and lasted for over thirty years. The line was opened in May 1877; astonishingly escaped Beeching, despite being listed for closure; and is still used today.

The self-deprecating foreword is by Tim Dunn, the excellent presenter of Secrets of the London Underground on the Yesterday TV channel, and is well worth reading. It tells of eight year old Timmy’s attempts to note the times of trains, not realising that trains ran to published timetables.

In Victorian times, many towns were promised railways but, like St Ives, often had to wait for decades until they were built. Railways were expected to magically bring more business to a town; to take exports away and bring imports in. The lack of a railway meant a town would be unable to compete with other towns; its businesses would atrophy; and its population emigrate, leaving a ghost town. The St Ives branch line was eventually built; was well used with through services to/from Paddington; but then, in the 1950s, more people could afford cars and railways, in general, lost customers in large volumes. The St Ives branch line was popular in the summer (320,000 travelled by trail to Cornwall in 1961) but Beeching’s review was based upon the traffic carried in one week in April 1961. Barbara Castle, the Minister of Transport vetoed the line’s closure when it became obvious that the local roads could not cope with the volume of tourists during the summer.

The book is well balanced, with a fulsome history of the line post-Beeching, rather than dismissing the diesel-era in a page or two. This is a really good book and I enjoyed reading it – I learned a lot. My only quibble is due to my personal interests: I’m not interested in the actual locos and carriages that are used; I want to read about the social and economic impact of a railway. However, Long gives us immense detail about the classes of locos used over the last fifty years, even giving us the locomotive number and their colours, for goodness sake! I really don’t care that Class 122’s No 122100 was withdrawn on 22 December 1993 – BR could have used Ivor the Engine disguised as Thomas the Tank Engine for all I care. However, I accept that there are sensible people out there who DO care and who will be delighted with the thorough coverage in Long’s book.
#TheStIvesBranchLineAHistory #NetGalley

What a fantastic and fascinating book this is.

I have travelled on all the Cornwall branch lines (except the Gunnislake, which starts over the border at Plymouth), so was delighted to look at this book with its history of the origins, development and history of the line from St Erth to St Ives.

Starting with the origins of the line, Richard Long's book takes us on a journey across the late Victorian age into the 20th century and bang up-to-date, with all the dramas, uncertainty and achievements meticulously chronicled.

There are several splendid photographs to accompany the narrative and I was also pleased to see references to the Isle of Wight!

The wealth of history around the line is one that is bound to delight railway and social history enthusiasts alike. It will provide hours of pleasure.

I received an ARC of this book via Pen & Sword, in return for an honest appraisal.

This is an incredibly well researched and detailed overview of the history of the St Ives branch line. There is an exceptionally in-depth summary of how the branch came into being, some of the obstacles it faced along the way and some thoughts about its future.

The photographs are so clear and vivid, and it is amazing to see how the landscape has changed over the years (and actually which parts have stayed untouched). This is an area of the country that I know very well, but I learnt a great deal about the history of the branch.

I had however hoped for some more stories about the people and businesses along the line, such as more of the hotels and the beaches, and at times I did get a bit bogged down in the sheer amount of details and background.

With thanks to NetGalley and Pen & Sword for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.