It tells the story of those lines which are today little more than weed-choked scars in the landscape. or a patch of lighter soil in a neatly cultivated field.
Yet in their day. these forgotten railways were important links in the economic and social life of the region, bringing coal to the shippng staithes of Tyne, Wear and Tees, or iron ore to hungry furnaces from remote moorland mines , clinging to steep cliffs and carrying heavy loads of holiday makers to coastal resorts likeSandsend, Whitby and Robins hoods Bay.
This book recalls the heyday of such railways