That Britannia once ruled the waves is common knowledge – but she also once ruled the rails.
So declare Colin Alexander and Alon Siton, the authors of new book Railways of the British Empire: Australasia and Beyond (Amberley Publishing).
The fascinating tome, using vintage photographs, tells the story of the expansion of the railways of the British Empire, documenting how Britain’s engineers ‘exported the railway around the globe’.
The authors write: ‘In those parts of the world that were coloured