Books by John Jackson

A quick look at today's map of the county of Leicestershire and it's easy to see that its county town, Leicester, sits at an important railway crossroads. With London to the south and the East Midlands cities of Derby and Nottingham to the north, the line linking St Pancras and Sheffield is crossed in Leicester by one of England's most important east-west link lines. This link provides passenger rail journey opportunities to and from Birmingham to the west and the cities of Peterborough and Cambridge to the east. In addition, it is playing an increasingly important role as a freight route to and from East Anglia, including connecting the UK's largest container port at Felixstowe with a number of terminals across the country. The line between Leicester and Burton on Trent may have lost its passenger service, but it remains an important access route to the quarries in the area around Coalville. The county's railways may have been drastically pruned by the Beeching Axe, but they still have a wide variety of traffic on offer. In this book John Jackson looks at the variety of traffic at work on the county's main lines. The story is completed by a glance at today's roll of Brush's workshops in Loughborough and loco servicing and stabling facility now occupying the former depot at Leicester itself.

Nuneaton, the largest town in Warwickshire, sits on an important railway crossroads in the Midlands. At its Trent Valley station, the busy West Coast Main Line heads broadly north to south with the important link between Birmingham and Leicester crossing east to west. An equally important line heads south-east from the town, through Coventry and Leamington Spa, carrying local passengers as well as an important freight link with the docks at Southampton. This line to Coventry and beyond has had a chequered past and was one of many victims of the Beeching Axe before, fortunately, reopening to passengers in the late 1980s. The author has spent many thousands of hours watching and photographing rail movements through Nuneaton station. This publication takes a look at the considerable variety of both passenger and freight traffic on offer to the enthusiast, ranging from the everyday to the unexpected.

John Jackson takes a look at passenger and freight working on the railways in and around Peterborough.

A look at the contemporary freight scene in the UK.

An important examination of the new reality of race in American culture