The Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Light Railway, was one of the lines managed and operated by Colonel Holman Fred Stephens from his office in Salford Terrace in Tonbridge Kent. It was a revival of the long disused Potteries Shrewsbury & North Wales Railway, a railway that went bankrupt shortly after opening in the mid 1860s and was left derelict for forty years. The railway reopened in 1911 to much local rejoicing, however the company was in financial difficulties by the 1920s and withdrew its passenger services in the early 1930s. During the Second World War the army took over the railway, constructing ammunition and stores depots along its entire length. After the war the railway continued to be operated by the army until closed in 1960, when it was handed over to the Western Region of British Railways for demolition. The author has researched the history of this fascinating bucolic railway over many years. In this new book he presents much previously unpublished information and many fascinating insights into the railway's complicated history. AUTHOR: Peter Johnson is a well-known and respected historian of narrow gauge and light railways. He has had many articles and books published over the last forty years. This book on the Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Light Railway is the precursor of a new book on the adjoining Tanat Valley Light Railway. This is his ninth book for Pen & Sword Transport for Pen & Sword, mostly on Welsh narrow gauge subjects. His last book, Mail by Rail, was about the Royal Mail's travelling post offices and the private underground electric railway that connected sorting offices in London. He lives in Leicester, where he continues to research and write books on minor railways and enjoy railway photography. 200 colour and b/w illustrations, maps, track diagrams
