Available for the first time in hardback, British Railways Atlas 1947: The Last Days of the Big Four helps to recall a long-lost era when railways were still the dominant form of transport for both passengers and freight all over the country. Originally published in 1948 as a permanent record of the British railway system as it was at the end of private ownership in December 1947, British Railways Atlas 1947 is a graphic reminder of the scale of the railway industry in the period before Nationalisation. Each of the lines of the Big Four railway companies is differentiated by a colour - Great Western (yellow), London, Midland & Scottish (red), London & North Eastern (blue) and Southern (green). Also shown are the myriad minor railways that had managed to maintain their independence after the Grouping of 1923 but which were to disappear along with their larger neighbours into the new British Railways: lines such as the Kent & East Sussex and the East Kent which had jealously guarded their independence were to be swallowed up. This reprint of the ever popular Rail Atlas comes back bigger and better than before, and of course in Hard back for the first time ever.