Lancashire has always counted itself among the pioneers of Britain's railway network. As early as 1826 George Stephenson was apppointed to build the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. From the beginning, though, the county's railways were constructed not for the purpose of passenger traffic but to move freight, principally coal, direct from the mines to its customers. As the demand for coal expanded to power the ever-increasing new industrial machines so the need for good railway connections grew to match it. By the mid 1850s some 250,000 navvies were working across the county on railway projects. In this well-researched and highly readable book local author Mark Jones offers a feast of nostalgia as he tells the story of Lancashire's railways in their heyday.