Southern Railway Handbook by David Wragg

The Southern Railway has not always been seen as the most glamorous of the four companies that emerged from the grouping of 1923, but it was the great innovator. It was the Southern that created the largest electrified suburban railway network in the world before the Second World War, and pioneered the first main-line electrification in 1931. The Southern re-introduced the concept of services at even intervals, so that passengers did not need to carry a timetable. The Southern was also first with true international services, introducing the 'Night Ferry' through trains from London to Paris in 1936 using special train ferries. Its chief engineer in the later years, Oliver Bullied, not only designed electric as well as steam rolling stock, but many features of his locomotives were introduced on standard BR rolling stock. This extensively illustrated book, a sister title to LMS Handbook, LNER Handbook and GWR Handbook, provides a unique source for highly detailed reference information about the GWR: text, tabular details and photographs of its locomotives and rolling stock, its other equipment, its depots and some railway stations, and its network.