The vast majority of Britain's railways were built between 1830 and 1900 which happened to coincide with the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901). By the turn of the Nineteenth/Twentieth Century, over one hundred different railway companies were operating in Britain on more than 22,000 miles of railway track. Although these new railways brought prosperity to the nation and enabled goods and passengers to be speedily transported the length and breadth of the country for the first time, this remarkable feat of engineering brought with it some unwelcome side-effects, one of which was crime. Wherever crowds of people gather, or unattended goods are being transported, a few unscrupulous individuals and career criminals will usually emerge to ply their trade. Some railway staff members are also unable to resist the temptation of stealing money or goods passing through their hands. This book gives an insight into the nature and types of crime committed on the railways during the Victorian era, incorporating such offences as theft, assaults and murder, fraud, obstructing the railways and various other infringements of the law. Over seventy different cases mentioned in the book are true accounts of events which took place on the railway during the Victorian era, the details of which were obtained as a result of hours of researching British Newspaper Archives of that period. The author hopes that readers will get as much pleasure from analysing the various cases cited in the book, as he himself derived from researching and writing about them. AUTHOR: Malcolm Clegg had a thirty year career as a Constable and Sergeant in the British Transport Police. The majority of his service was spent both in Uniformed and CID policing of the railways and docks at Newport, Cardiff and Swansea. He spent ten years in London, stationed at Paddington, Liverpool Street, Stratford and the London Underground Network. His final years were spent working as a Detective Sergeant in Swansea, investigating crimes in South and West Wales. After his retirement, he became an active member of the British Transport Police History Group (www.btphg.org.uk). He has carried out extensive research on behalf of the group and has written a number of articles. He has written four other books entitled; British Steam Locomotives before Preservation, The Last Days of British Steam, LMS and LNER Steam Locomotives, British Transport Police (A definitive history of the early years and subsequent development), each published by Pen & Sword. 20 b/w illustrations
