A study of various (mainly) closed railways in the Birmingham and Black Country area. The book is fairly comprehensive and is illustrated with a serious of not previously seen photographs.

However, the maps are too simplistic, often omitting lines mentioned in the text, and not indicating the ownership of the railways. They appear to have been drawn without reference to the text. And on reading the penultimate chapter on the Stonebridge Railway, I was able to identify a number of factual errors in the text. This then begs the question as to whether the rest of the book is necessarily accurate.

So: this book should not be your only source on the railways of the Birmingham area, but the rarity of the photographs makes it worthwhile. ( )