Great Railway Journeys: The Chiltern Line to Birmingham

It is a record of forty fascinating sites that can be seen from the window of a train travelling from Marylebone Station in London to Moor Street Station in Birmingham. Some will be familiar, like Wembley Stadium. Others will probably come as a delightful surprise, including historic monuments and village churches. The history of the Dashwood Mausoleum and the notorious Hellfire Caves is particularly interesting.

The train passes the structure that contains more bricks than any other in Britain. This is the retaining wall at High Wycombe Station and there are just under 7 million of them. Among the sites featured is the Tesco store in Gerrards Cross. This was built despite much opposition from local people and in 2005 the partly built construction collapsed onto the railway line. A catastrophe was only narrowly averted and the line was closed for some time.

This book is a follow-up to the highly successful Great Railway Journeys: London to Birmingham and Great Railway Journeys: London to Sheffield. It is a must-read for anyone who would like to know more about this wonderful line.