REVIEW OF THE MONTH
The Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Light Railway The Rise and Fall of a Rural Byway
Peter Johnson
Pen Sword Books, 47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire S70 2AS. Tel: 01226 734222.
Web: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk Description: Hardback, 225 × 290mm, 240pp. ISBN: 9781526776174. Price: £38.
The Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Railway isa remarkable story. It went bust in Victorian times, and was revived and then returned to dereliction. Then, it prospered under Ministry of Defence control until peacetime finally finished it off.
The S&M famous spent three decades under the control of light railway champion Colonel Holman ‘Fred’ Stephens, who was both energetic and perseverant, battling bravely against poor trade and a lack of capital. To judge him solely by the images of abandoned and derelict rolling stock littering sidings towards the end of the S&M’s private existence is quite unfair.
The 18-mile line was intended to be a useful cross-country link to connect with the Cambrian’s Welshpool-Oswestry line, with a small branch from Kinnerley Junction to the quarry at Criggion.
The 18-mile rurala number of ‘secret’ military storage depots west of Shrewsbury.
