Eric Sawford has brought together a fascinating collection of facts and rare photographs to shed new light on the history of the Eastern Region. He has drawn on his extensive archive of pictures to illustrate unusual aspects of the Eastern that have been overlooked in other works devoted to this part of the railway network. His book is illuminating reading for everyone with a special interest in this area and for all railway enthusiasts. His photographs provide us with an evocative record of the infrastructure of the railway during an extraordinary period in is history. They recall many of the once-common features of a system that has now gone forever. Lines and branch lines that were closed in the 1950s and 1960s are well represented. All the minute details of railway life from semaphore signalling to the rolling stock and timetables are included. This is a tribute to a lost past that deserves to be remembered.