ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am particularly grateful to Bob Gwynne, Associate Curator of Rail Vehicles at the National Rail Museum, York. I am also greatly indebted to Russell Hollowood, assistant curator at the museum, and to David Monk-Steel, railway author, for talking to me about signalling and coal movements respectively.

I would also like to thank: Neil Marshall of the 5-Bel Trust; Nicholas Whittaker, author; Barry Doe, fares expert and Rail magazine columnist; Michael Smith, train driver; Michael Chapman and Alan Cox, of the Brick Society; Lauren Robertson, PR manager of the Balmoral Hotel; Terry Bye, editor of Pullman and CIWL News; and Joanna Hughes, Heritage Curator, EMI Group Archive Trust.

Press officers at Eurostar, East Coast, First Great Western and Southeastern Trains also kindly provided press tickets for travel on their services.

Niall Davitt and Peter Saxton offered many valuable suggestions for improving the manuscript. They also eliminated a good many mistakes; any remaining are my responsibility.

… And, yes, I know the signals at the chapter heads are of a kind more commonly associated with America, but they look pretty.