The West Riding of Yorkshire boasted the most complex railway network in Britain, comprised at various times of seven railway companies, with an eighth trying to secure a foothold, eleven significant joint lines and several minor systems. With no overall strategic pattern of territory or route, the companies seemed to vie incessantly for supremacy, often at the expense of efficiency with the significant duplication of facilities: over twenty-five towns and villages had two passenger stations, while some even had three or four! This book reviews the local history, including its economy and key industries. It describes the need for the railways and the political and geographical challenges they faced. It discusses the impact on the region of 'railway mania' experienced throughout Britain in the mid-nineteenth century. The many locomotives that worked these lines are celebrated, with a behind-the-scenes look at their yards, sheds and roundhouses. The lost branch lines and stations are remembered. Finally, there are individual chapters covering Leeds, Doncaster, Barnsley and the coalfields, Sheffield and Rotherham, Airedale and Wharfedale, the Aire and Calder watershed, the Calder Valley and Huddersfield.

"Krist does wonders . . . [He] describes the frantic rescue efforts . . . and the malevolent, unending storm. In a thrilling, climactic chapter, he conjures forth the avalanche.""--The New York Times" In February 1910, a monstrous, record-breaking blizzard hit the Northwest. Nowhere was the danger more terrifying than near a tiny town called Wellington, perched high in the Cascade Mountains, where a desperate situation evolved: two trainloads of cold, hungry passengers and their crews found themselves marooned. For days, an army of the Great Northern Railroad's most dedicated men worked to rescue the trains, but just when escape seemed possible, the unthinkable occurred--a colossal avalanche tumbled down, sweeping the trains over the steep slope and down the mountainside. Centered on the astonishing spectacle of our nation's deadliest avalanche, "The White Cascade "is the masterfully told story of a never-before-documented tragedy.