The place of peripheral “railway towns” in transport history

Abstract

This panorama paper seeks to explore some of the literature surrounding “railway towns” and the justifications for a comparative study of these towns, as defined by Jack Simmons in The Railway in Town and Country, 1830–1914. It also argues that so-called peripheral “railway towns”, villages, towns and cities not dominated by the railway industry but with significant railway communities or connections, should also be included within these studies in order that the social, economic and demographic impacts of the railways can be explored in greater detail.