The 32-mile railway from Birmingham Snow Hill to Worcester Shrub Hill is still an important line in the lives of many West Midlands travellers.

Its route through Birmingham’s north-western suburbs to the industrial heartlands of the Black Country and, finally, to towns and villages south of Stourbridge, mirrors the three phases of its construction. In words and pictures, this book describes the line’s development and the services it supported before the modern railway took shape.

Roger Norfolk’s interest in railways dates from the mid-1950s where the playground talk on a Monday was of the weekend of train spotting by the local main line. Ha later became a keen photographer, an interest maintained to this day. For many years he contributed to the SVR house magazine and has written articles for other magazines following his role as the driver of the Flying Scotsman on the BBC 4 TV documentary, Flying Scotsman From the Footplate.