The book I read to research this post was This Is York Major Railway Centre which is more a special magazine than a book. In this post I will focus more on writing about York than a review. York was connected to the railways quite early on because there was a railway around Newcastle & George Hudson had the foresight to see what was needed when they were building a railway from London was a long distance railway. He also helped orchestrate the building of the railway station & main hotel for rail travellers which were both very impressive. Hudson went on to manage the railway company when it became a regional company but dabble in underhand practises even by those days standards and eventually got the sack. A man called Leeman was responsible for catching him out and the National Railway Museum is on Leeman Street, a road dedicated to him. For many years Hudson was villified in York and it’s only more recently a road has been named after him. York was the only place in Britain where you could see Atlantic expresses in 4 liveries. Carlisle had the edge in that 7 companies ran to the Citadel station but both places were a train spotters dream. At one stage at the museum there was a fire which claimed one of The Mallard’s A4 sister locomotives. Of course the A4 was the fastest steam locomotive ever built and The Mallard which is on display here is the fastest steam locomotive ever and holds the world record. There are numerous steam railways privately run in Yorkshire. The Derwent Valley Railway used to have light in the title but this confused many people into thinking it was a narrow gauge railway which probably lost them business.
