Christian Wolmar, "British Rail: A New History" (Michael Joseph, 2022)
New Books in Science, Technology, and Society
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How Was Electrification Achieved?
There was a great shortage of steel and other components to make electric motors. So they kept their steam locomotives for far too long. The first big electrification scheme was what we call the west coast lake main line which runs between london and manchester, liverpool, er and glasgowvi, birmingham. It finally electrified the whole line by 63 years ago. But still major parts of the real network are not electrified. And that probably represents a great failure, both of british rail and its successors.
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